> To fix this you need to attach a penalty to someone who both has something to lose and is in a position to detect the crime. But the someone with something to lose are the owners and when they're diffuse passive investors they're not in a position to detect the crime.
If they had any accountability they would find ways to put themselves in such a position.
No, they wouldn't. They are you. If you have a 401(k), you probably have shares of some of these companies -- likely hundreds if not thousands of different companies. You don't have time to investigate each of their inner workings and if one of them was convicted of mass murder and fully imploded causing their share price to go to zero, you would typically lose a fraction of a percent of your portfolio and might not even notice.
If they had any accountability they would find ways to put themselves in such a position.