¿Morten: And what are we going to do, when you have made liberal-minded and high-minded men of us? Dr. Stockman: Then you shall drive all the wolves out of the country, my boys!¿ (Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, Act V) The theoretical and empirical research of this book describes how the traditional safeguards of the rights of minority shareholders have failed in their duty and how those shareholders have remained practically without any protection against the arbitrariness of the companies and majority shareholders. The law, the SEC, society, boards of directors, independent directors, auditors, analysts, underwriters and the press have remained in many cases worthless panaceas. Nevertheless, in the Ethics of 2000 new vehicles have been developed for the protection of minority shareholders, mainly the Internet, transparency, activist associations and ethical funds. Those vehicles give the shareholders at least the chance to understand the pattern and methods that are utilized to wrong them and give them a viable alternative for investment in ethical funds. The new vehicles will prevent minority shareholders from using the Armageddon weapon, by ceasing to invest in the stock exchange and causing the collapse of the system, that discriminates against them.

This monograph is based on qualitative and inductive research. All the cases treated in it are based on current events and try to find the common aspects and basic rules that govern the wrongdoing to the minority shareholders. In the four cases of US, French and Israeli companies, most of them in high tech, the minority shareholders lose almost all their investment. Those are not pervert cases but the norm in many companies, which is illustrated by qualitative cases, without being able of course to quantify them. Case studies are the preferred strategy when "how" and "why" questions are being posed. The purpose of this monograph is therefore to analyze why and how companies do not act ethically towards their minority shareholders, not how many, not which, not to what degree and not where.

The Inefficient Safeguards of the Minority Shareholders.- The Attitude of Society.- The Excessive Privileges of the Majority Shareholders.- Internet and Transparency as Ethical Vehicles.- Ethical Funds.- Activist Associations, 'Transparency International', 'Adam'.- Case Study of the French Company Loskron.- Case Study of the Israeli/American Company Furolias.- Case Study of the Israeli Companies Erinsar and Soktow.- Case Study of the American Company Mastoss.- Class Actions.- 36 Laws of Wrongdoing to Minority Shareholders in Unethical Companies.- Conclusion.