Part of the Faustian world is doing whatever necessary to achieve the goal. So the CEOs of the cheating companies reach an "agreement" with the accounting and investment firms, which allows the company to hide debt and inflate profits. One such accounting firm, Arthur Anderson shredded documents related to it's client Enron after they were charged with numerous counts of fraud (Patsuris 2002). Companies like Arthur Anderson, who are supposed to help stop corporate corruption, lie and cheat so they can add to their already deep pockets in their quest for wealth, ambition, and power. No matter how many millions and sometimes billions of dollars these corporations make, they still hunger for more.
Even when Faustian corporations make deals with the devil, they still want more. CEOs of major corporations make far more money than the average upper class citizen. One such person is WorldCom's Bernard Ebbers. In July 2002 WorldCom filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The company added more than $7 billion in expenses (Under Investigation: WorldCom 2003). In addition, the company allegedly gave co-founder and former CEO Ebbers $400 million in off the books loans (Patsuris 2002). Its hard to believe that billionaires like Ebbers and his associates accept millions more, money that they could not spend in two lifetimes. Their fates mirror that of Doctor Faustus from Marlowe's play. Except, unlike Faustus, Ebbers searched for power from wealth rather than from knowledge. In his last moments, Faustus begged God to lessen his damnation and asks himself why he ignored his conscience (Marlowe 1904). The corrupt businessmen and women will ask themselves the same question when they are sentenced by a Grand Jury. Everyone who commits these Faustian acts of lying and deceit will ultimately pay for their wrongdoings. These people would be admired if their rise to power did not include such treacherous tactics.
