Carel Two-Eagle, you make me laugh! I appreciate your kind and edifying words to me and about me. Clearly I am a space cadet and you are Captain Kirk. I have much to learn about your world. In my travels here on Earth I have found the human species to be an odd lot on the evolutionary scale, particularly business people who are in the know. It's amazing to me the number of good people out there doing good work for others in organizations like yours and those who just can't help but turning to the dark side. I remember when a young Jedi I once knew turned to the dark side. It was murder to say the least but he was able to redeem himself in the end. It didn't make up for all the bad he had done, but it did bring resolution with his son, and in that story, that was enough. But that was in a galaxy far, far away.
I have to say I didn't quite understand the comment about impeachment and cahoney's and all those others you mentioned that should have been impreached. Is there no one, no one person in your world who is able and willing to stand up to the kind of corruption you describe? Regula 7 had that problem and eventually they imploded on themselves.
As an alien to this topic and planet I guess it is a strange phenomenon when good people go bad in business. How naive and studid on my part. I guess I really have had the bush pulled down over my eyes by the Big Bush afterall. And Praise the Lord, you have delivered me into the light! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Jay Tatum - No one would dare accuse the President or Vice-President of corruption? What galaxy do you live in? The purpose of impeachment is to deter "misdemeanors and high crimes in office" while elected. It is this nation's misfortune that those who have followed the crooks often haven't had the cahoneys to follow through with impeachment - my guess is because they figure 'there but for the grace of the Great Holy go they'.
Dick Nixon should have been impeached. Bill Clinton should have been impeached. George W. Bush is definitely corrupt, AS WELL AS stupid, ignorant, and its nasty twin - arrogant; and he and his cohorts stole the first election for his Presidency. Dick Cheney is unconscionably rude, arrogant, and crooked as a dog's hind leg; Karl Rove - the supposed brains behind GWB and Dick Cheney's evil twin - should be staked on a fire ant hill..
And I - the CEO of both a for-profit and of a not-for-profit corporation - am dead serious about everything I've said.
You need to join the real world, Jay. Your statement indicates that you have been living under a bush - as well as a Bush. Tch, tch. Or maybe, the one put you under the other.

Why are so many great business leaders also great philanthropists?

Sounds like you have struck a nerve with the reading audience! Clash of the (Values) Titans, all over again.

I wonder whether corruption could ever be good, as being corrupted with character, honesty, and integrity. I am always in awe of those who seem to be characterized as great (whatever that means) in business and usually it means they've had their hands in the till too many times! They get corrupted with greed (which is good, according to Michael Douglas's character in "Wall Street") and yet so we love their meteoric rise to greatness. So what does that say about Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffet, and those on the Forbes Top Ten List? Corrupt? Maybe. Great business leaders? Absolutely. Pehaps it may be in the way we characterize great business leaders that we find them guilty of corruption. No one would dare accuse or allege our President and Vice President of corruption. Does that mean they were not great business leaders? My point is this - if you are going on a witch hunt, you'll find a witch.

I wonder whether I could pose the question differently and discover some parallel answers. Why is it that so many great business leaders are also great philanthropists? Sound off readers, this is your chance.

This brings to mind a perceptive thought from Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902):
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

The ability to knowlingly commit a dishonest or unethical act and rely on an anticipated legal defense to "make it all good in the end" is an idication of dishonesty. The boards of directors and other members of management that choose not to speak out are equally to blame. Together, they create the evironment where a dishonest and/or unethical director can operate.

Unfortunately, these companies will only police themselves when huge monetary fines may result from illegal actions.

The sure sign that a country is on the outs is when its leadership is corrupt, caught in lascivious activities and disregards the populace. I suggest everyone read "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?" by Lee Iacocca

Many believe they have come to power because the are brilliant. What they forget, is it took others to vote them there.

Who won the "Customers First" award?

Business leaders who are corrupt are not great leaders. Today there is so much pressure from stockholders or customers to earn a profit that business leaders feel they must do what is necessary to achieve it. Customers must insist on integrity in all business dealings and communicate that to a company. If this is done business leaders would not find it in their best interest to be corrupt in their business dealings. A company who displays integrity in their business dealings are more profitable than those who are not. Companies with corrupt leaders when they are discovered lose customers and have reduced profit. Those companies who operate with integrity and it is communicated in everything they do they will be rewarded with increased customers who are happy. Happy customers tell their friends.

In all activities in the world exist bad people,unfortunately is part of human race.