CEO's, MD's and business owners, I have a difficult question for you today.
Would you hire a CFO whose previous employer has been caught for embezzlement?
In this scenario the CFO has come out clean, officially.
I bet some of you are saying, "It's the CFO's job to have known, so they must be incompetent."
Or, "They had to have been involved. They can't be trusted."
The reality is that it does happen. A competent and ethical CFO, Finance Manager, or Head of Finance resigns from a company where the shareholders were secretly embezzling funds, unbeknownst to the CFO until the moment the scandal was exposed to the company and the public.
Should they carry this ugly blemish on their record to the end of their career?
Should they leave the profession, never work in finance again?
As the hiring CEO, what would you expect this CFO to do or say in order for you to employ them?