There's a lot of caver-emptor required : many companies have notes on their accounts from auditors saying things like "we can't see the accounts in Italy" for y

There's a lot of caver-emptor required : many companies have notes on their accounts from auditors saying things like "we can't see the accounts in Italy" for years before the staggering frauds are discovered. Investors generally don't care at all, and only start squealing when the firm charges £100m to their results. If investors treated accounts & audits seriously then it would be different. But they don't - and so many, if not most big companies have significant standing "irregularities".