Fargo perhaps not the best example - they weren't punished because the company as a whole lost money, the targets had effectively set up the frontline employees to defraud both the company and the customers.
So if you don't make a profit from a crime, you shouldn't be punished for that crime?
That's like saying if I attempt to steal something from a store, security stops me, retrieves the item, then I shouldn't be punished because I didn't get anything from my crime, in fact it cost me money, in gas, going to the store to steal from it...
The "they were defrauding us too" is a weaselly argument - it can be argued that when you are an executive, you represent the company, and directing people to do something, can they really be said to be deceiving/defrauding you by _doing as you directed_?
Not true, executives pushed their high-pressure upselling scheme downstream without properly following up on if the goals of the program were realistic or viable. They fired or punished employees calling into the ethics line. Their high-pressure policies created this culture of fraud, and they looked the other way. So long as the money kept rolling in, they didn't care how it was getting done.
