Legendary short seller Jim Chanos gave an extensive interview to Salon.com about how to spot fraud and corruption in business.

 It’s an incredible coincidence that the story was published today, since the news broke that former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, a man Chanos helped put behind bars, could be getting out of jail early.

Enron is held up as the paragon of 1990s corporate greed. There, not everything was as it seemed despite excellent press all over the business world and a great reputation.

The point is that companies can build amazing brands without being amazing businesses, and as Chanos points out, part of that brand can be doing charity work. (more…)