This article explores the anatomy of three recent financial scandals and investigates how the legal system has responded to them. Furthermore, it analyses whether behavioural designs can prevent future criminal offenses. The article comes to the conclusion that the social as well as the physical environment can diminish the human propensity to commit a fraud. Moreover, misconduct was often made attractive to fraudsters by means of external rewards. Reforming performance incentives might therefore be an efficient measure to reduce deception in financial markets.
Reprint from the Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, 7(2): 192–201. This version has been slightly updated and modified.
European Business Law Review