"He realized that a batch of letters he'd sent to landowners, offering to lease their rights, had incorrect information, including monetary amounts and other details. But instead of correcting the errors, Bentley doubled down, not wanting to admit his mistake. When the letters failed to secure enough land leases to generate big profits, Bentley tried to make up the difference by sinking his investors' money into new, risky deals, some of which faltered and drained the coffers of his company, Bellatorum Resources."
"Everything started going downhill. Moral death spirals such as Bentley's happen in every sphere of public life, from business to local government to the highest levels of political leadership. The deterioration often begins with a small dishonest actsuch as Bentley's decision to bluff his way through what had been an honest errorand mounts until it reaches a point of no return."
Chris Bentley founded a company to buy drilling rights and sent erroneous lease-offer letters to landowners, then chose to bluff rather than correct the mistakes. Failed deals prompted him to invest investors' funds in riskier ventures that lost money, and as cash flow dried up he recorded bogus transactions to pay employees. The misconduct escalated until Bentley committed about $40 million in fraud and later entered home confinement after prison. Similar moral death spirals can occur across public life, with repeated wrongdoing numbing moral responses and enabling progressively larger crimes and harms.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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