Lots of people building real businesses do shady things on the way up. John Hempton wrote up a great example of this about a failed short play against Steve Ma

Lots of people building real businesses do shady things on the way up. John Hempton wrote up a great example of this about a failed short play against Steve Madden Shoes[0]. Steve Madden may have been a fibber, but he made shoes people wanted to buy. The value of the shoes was larger than the fakery. But when you are selling financial services, this kind of fakery almost always blows up because the accounting is the product. And if the accounts are fake, the thing is fake. Fake accounts always leave a hole that can only grow with each cycle of fraud. Dan Davies wrote a great book titled "Lying for Money" on the whole sorry process[1]. Galbraith called it the "bezzle". [0] - http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/2011/05/steve-madden-counter-example.html http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/2011/05/steve-madden-count... [1] - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38605195-lying-for-money https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38605195-lying-for-money