Satisfaction and Financial Predation: A Large Group
Study Revealing Their Mathematical Link

Abstract

For several decades now, wealthy organizations and people have had the misfortune of finding out that their pockets have been systematically and meticulously emptied by people they blindly trusted. This phenomenon includes such cases as the all-mighty employer Sumitomo and its star trader, Yasuo Hamanaka, “the copper master.” In the 1990s, he managed to hide some US$2.6 billion in losses over a 10-year period. This multidisciplinary article uses three databases, one of which is from recent research on a Canadian case of financial predation involving nearly 2,000 investors, to show that unconditional trust can be built through consistently satisfying stakeholders. In the process, they lower their guard and become easy prey for malevolent financial predators. Understanding this process is an additional tool to protect wealthy individuals against abuse.