One of the names for this is 'control fraud' and its very common. To pick an exotic example, people in the United States create software companies to impress rich fools, borrow their money on promises that it will get really big, and pay themselves and their friends generous wages which they keep even if the company collapses. People who run this scam often spend money very fast (they call it a 'burn rate') to impress investors about how big they will be one day even if it hurts their ability to create a proffitable business within the next five to ten years! Foreigners and their wacky scams!