> As buybacks surged in 2014, Hampton Creek expensed about $1.4 million under this unusual category over five months, compared with $1.9 million of net sales in the period.

Hmm.....

I actually had to take a course in business ethics and the first rule we were taught was, if you wouldn't feel comfortable getting on the phone and telling your share holders what you are doing then its probably wrong.

> Javier Colón was an operations manager at Hampton Creek from 2012 until Tetrick fired him in 2013. They sparred, Colón says, over Tetrick’s attempts to change some employment contracts without the workers’ consent

If you've ever been responsible for a Pnl unit, much less an entire company, then you'll understand the crushing pressure you are under to make numbers. Sooner or later you'll have to decide if committing outright fraud is worth it.

I'm guessing that the management had good intentions when they started out. And the fraud started small, just buy a few cases to juice the quarters numbers, and it slowly spirals out of control.

Once you compromise your ethics, its hard to put hte genie back in the bottle.