It's always nice when people who do good also do well, but if it was easy to do, I suspect we would all be millionaires and I (for one) am still work for a living.
That said, I am proud to know a number of terrific fraud fighters, as I told The Wall Street Journal yesterday.
Another interviewer for another outfit asked me why so many of the good guys and gals in the fraud-fighting business do not like to talk to the press.
It's simple I said: these folks are true American heroes in the John Wayne mold.
John Wayne rode into town, found the trouble, shot the trouble, and rode out. Real heroes don't spend the next ten years in a saloon retelling the story to anyone who will listen. That's not the cowboy way.
Of course, the white hats are never able to shoot out all the trouble, and so every morning they are careful to reload.
With $28 billion recovered under one law, there's now over 1,000 cases backlogged under another law dealing with massive tax frauds, and we have a new SEC anti-fraud program about to come to life in the wake of the Bernie Madoff fraud, the banking scams, and the subprime mortgage fiasco.
I was asked yesterday if the barons of Wall Street are worried about the new SEC law.
My reply:
"Right now, they're a bit like a troop of rats living in a barn. The door has cracked opened, and a terrier has just walked in. The rats are pretty sure the game has changed, but they're still not sure how. I think they're about to find out, but we'll see."
And indeed we will. But however it goes, it won't be quick, and it won't be easy, and it won't be assured.
This stuff is like sword-swallowing; it looks easy from the cheap seats, but if you aim to do it yourself, and without help from the experts, be sure to stock up on a lot of Mercurochrome!
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