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Comment by dankohn1

11 years ago

Foundations (and all corporations) have a board of directors who can be personally sued for a foundation's actions. That's the reason Directors & Officers insurance exists.

6 comments

dankohn1

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spinlock  11 years ago

Piercing the corporate veil is not a trivial task. Generally speaking, this only happens when a corporation owes taxes (in the US). But, the point of setting up a corporation is to shield the owners from risk associated with the operation of the corporation.

mappum  11 years ago

Incorrect, the point of a corporation is to give its directors protection, and to give the corporation itself legal liability.

  • adventured  11 years ago

    The parent is not incorrect. Any corporate officer can be sued for actions they perform within a corporation.

    The government can also pursue you monetarily due to actions you perform as an executive.

    Just because the point of a corporation is to shield its directors / owners / executives, that has no bearing on whether it always does. Just because you have a corporation in front of you as an executive, that does not guarantee you won't lose in a court of law or that the government won't tear you to shreds.

    See: Jeffrey Skilling

    "Upon being sentenced, Skilling agreed to turn over $45 million to the Justice Department in conjunction with his conviction. The money is to be added to a restitution fund related to the civil litigation on behalf of employees and shareholders."

    http://www.chron.com/business/enron/article/Skilling-settles...

    Executives are very frequently responsible for all sorts of bad things they do in the name of a corporation. See: Worldcom, Adelphia, Enron, Tyco and countless other examples.