Financial officers are working at the very high, strategic, big picture level of the company, firm or organization. The underpinning of such an officer needs to begin with integrity and maintaining that integrity. I personally do not think many officers who have gone sideways started out crooked. Somewhere along the way, ethics were breached and a line was crossed. While this is a personal character breach, I think there have also been systemic issues that have fomented the problem. When a personal fortune can be greatly enhanced with stock options for example, how tempting do you think it might be at some point anyway (if not actually crossing the line), to begin “finding revenue” in the darnedest places? Few people have had tens or even hundreds of millions waived around even as a possibility. But given that possibility, any person might find himself or herself tempted to say or do things they never dreamed of. This is why the timeless principles of truth, integrity, conservatism in reporting and good sense never get old.
Part of the problem is that high-level financial posts are very stressful positions as the pressure to perform (sometimes magic) is tremendous. This requires aggressive behavior (while maintaining integrity) and working with other company officers to lay out strategic plans to raise capital, business plan, dump or add lines of business and endless other details. These decisions are hashed out among very strong personalities in similar roles within the organization, which is no easy task.
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