[sammyg2]

Different industry, the electrical distribution industry had just been de-regulated and was not being monitored, thereby opening the door for crooks trying to make a fast buck. They also got caught fairly quickly.
It is easy to catch them, it's just hard to convict them.

The oil industry is monitored closer than any other industry I can think of except maybe nuclear power generators. A refinery in California can't fart without notifying several different governmental agencies, and it is a sure bet that at least two of them will show up on-site to verify that everything is on the up and up.

Every time gas prices have gone up a dime over the past 20 years some politicial bucking for re-election calls for governmental investigations, both at the state and federal levels. Every time they find no evidence of widespread wrong doing. All they accomplish is to weaste taxpayer money, discredit the industry's name and reputation and to fool the voters into thinking that the jackass politician is looking out for their best interests.
Occasionally they find some clown that did something wrong and they throw him to the wolves, but there is no industry wide price fixing and hasn't been since I have been watching (25 years).

Two years ago I left the oil industry and went to work somewhere else. I was amazed at how much the new company played with numbers, swept things under the carpet, and generally cooked the books. I kept thinking that there is no way an oil company could get away with that crap for even a minute. I was so used to everyone watching everyone else to make sure there was no funny business that seeing it happen so openly in a different industry was shocking.
One time I was ordered to shuffle some costs to make the books look better than they were, I refused and they almost fired me until I asked them to put the order in writing and sign it, then they backed off because they knew what I would do with it.

BTW yesterday morning I attended a financial meeting for the senior VP of North American operations (I went back to work for a major oil company again). Over the years I've sat in on many meetings like this and I have lots of connections further up the ladder and if there was any funny business at all going on I would at least hear rumors of it, so it's not like I am too far removed to know what's really going on at the upper levels. With very few exceptions, the oil industry is one of the most above board and cleanest industries around. It has to be or it wouldn't last long at all.