That's a good question. I'm guilty here of throwing around "common knowledge" without knowing the actual facts. Thanks for calling me on it :) I have only he

That's a good question. I'm guilty here of throwing around "common knowledge" without knowing the actual facts. Thanks for calling me on it :) I have only heard that officers and directors of public companies have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders. Whether that obligation is legal or philosophical, I'm not sure. Doing a quick search here, I found little information pertaining to any legal requirements, but there are several cases of shareholders suing a company for not meeting their fiduciary duties. Based on that, it seem like there is some legal basis for this, but IANAL.