Welcome to The Corporate Insider, a website for workers, consumers, shareholders, academics and members of the press. This site is the internet's resource center for all who are impacted by corporate conduct.

Recent history has demonstrated that wrongful conduct by corporate insiders can have a devastating impact on corporate stakeholders and observers. From securities fraud which adversely impacts the value of stock to short cuts in the manufacturing process that result in defective products being injected into the marketplace, corporate conduct can be devastating. Yet, it is not so much the conduct of the corporation itself that can be problematic as much as it is the conduct of the corporate insiders who, often times guided by their own self-interest, abuse their corporate mandate to the detriment of stakeholders. In addition to shareholders and consumers, workers lose out when basic wage and hour, benefit, and job safety laws are skirted. Insider wrongdoing has eroded the integrity of many publicly traded corporations, and layoffs and plant closings have caused rising unemployment and the destruction of local economies.

Why do corporate insiders skirt the law and their obligations to stakeholders? One answer is that misguided executive compensation plans often reward insiders for short term corporate performance as measured by the value of the stock. If not paying workers overtime pay or cutting corners on product safety means profits in the short term, executives who want to see larger year-end bonuses will take the short cuts. While executive compensation plans should be written to properly incentivize insiders, stakeholders can have a real impact by knowing the laws that regulate corporations and taking action to enforce them. These laws range from securities laws to consumer and labor laws. With this in mind, this site has been developed with the intent of providing an overview of the laws that regulate corporate conduct.