And it was the first of the 25 criminal counts against the president of Old Court. In such a scam, it is almost impossible to finger everyone involved in the deal, Zohab says, even if you follow the money. And then along the way you've got developer's fees, manager's fees, consultant's fees, and all sorts of fees. The money was intended to build something, but they drained it off in fees. When the man at the top is blatantly stealing, everyone knows it and they start stealing, Zohab says.
Nobody can blow the whistle on anybody else.
The president didn't care if you stole, just so you didn't steal more than him. It becomes like a feeding frenzy, or a stealing frenzy. Once, during the course of the Old Court trial, as Zohab was out for lunch, a car pulled up beside him, the window was lowered, and he saw one of the Old Court executives motioning him toward the car. But it's important to remember that the higher up a person is in an institution, the more he can steal. And that's why it is important to convince banks that their control and audit systems should go all the way to the top, he says.