The Corporate Shell Game

Abstract

This Article identifies for the first time the hardening of the corporate shell. It provides compelling evidence that shell-hardening pushes and disguises the way that corporations and agents commit large-scale wrongdoing, and it traces the contributing legal streams that protect the agents who engage in this behavior. The only way to combat widespread frauds that inflict damage on the public is for the corporate shell to become less opaque.

Keywords: Citizens United, corporate law, Hobby Lobby, criminal conspiracy, civil conspiracy, corporate conspiracy, Volkswagen, Libor, financial crisis, DOJ, SEC, securities fraud, securities crime, intracorporate conspiracy, wrongdoing, corporate social responsibility, paper dragon, animation