[BlueTrain]

You wish that fraud, waste and abuse were not tolerated in private companies!

I think one factor that is operative here is in the nature of people to protect their group. You see it everywhere. Someone has to do something pretty bad to be ostracized and most of the time, that's about the limit to what can happen. If something really criminal is discovered, however, they probably won't last until the sun goes down. But for less serious behavior, it is covered up, swept under the rug, ignored, excused, explained away or whatever. People are not so much protecting the presumably (without a trial) guilty party so much as they are protecting themselves and the group they are a member of. There's a lot more to it than that but that's the gist of it.