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Blackmail and the CEO

By Steven F Reich and Cristina M. Posa
September 27, 2006

The scenario: You are the well-known CEO of a publicly traded New York-based company. You and your wife are 'A-Listers' on the charity circuit and sometime subjects of stories in the society pages and on entertainment television. Your meticulously crafted, wholesome-as-apple-pie image is that of a devoted husband and father of three children. Your ability to craft such a public image (with the help of expensive PR specialists) has been integral to the success of the company you run, which has carefully wrapped its own business and image around you.

What nobody knows is that you have been having an affair for years with a married woman with kids of her own. If this became public, not only could it spell ruin for your image, but could make your company fodder for late-night comedians. 'Well,' you have told yourself at least once a week since you started the affair, 'stop worrying. No one will ever find out.' That seemed an okay answer until yesterday, when you learned that somebody indeed has found out.

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