"Behind every great fortune there is a crime."
It's a great sounding quote, but obviously entirely untrue.
It's a great sounding quote, but obviously entirely untrue.
That doesn't make it a crime. But it does make those people less credible.
Berkshire Hathaway was investigated for insider trading, resulting in Sokol’s resignation. Four former execs of BK’s General Re were found guilty of fraud.
Almost all of those were done (temporarily) well after the fortunes were made.
Any examples you'd find I'd bet 95-99% were either the result of subsequent monopoly or as a result of government intervention either directly/indirectly benefiting them.
The 1-5% which weren't were likely punished. As the examples you mentioned were...
And Buffett was the richest man in the world well before either of these incidents.
Care to share a few of them which generated their wealth?
You seem to be getting pretty worked up about this. The reason I don’t think the claim is obviously untrue is because I believe the magnitude of wealth involved, and often the scale of operations/actors, increase the probability of actions ranging from morally dubious but legal to outright criminal.
Per one of your other replies, we can quibble about the quote and what “behind every great fortune” means, exactly. You seem to be interpreting it to say that criminal action was a major factor responsible for the fortune, while I interpret it more loosely, the impact being irrelevant.
At any rate, I doubt the quote is meant to be taken strictly literally, and is more of an aphorism.
"The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed."
The concept is metaphorical, but it is not without any merits. And there may be other elements, either on their own or in addition to, that crime, which accounts for the wealth. Blind luck (or some measure of luck-and-skill) being among the less-accounted-for in many instances.
As to the list you present, I see among the several monopolists, operators in corrupt countries, gambling and gaming, coal and fossil fuels industries, advertising, and financial services, numerous fairly obvious crimes, in at least a moral sense, though yes, also, quite often literally criminal.
Everybody lighten up, it's an aphorism.