When the threshold is to prove in court beyond a reasonable standard of doubt, it's going to be hard to prove that some horrible scheme that was never going to generate money (open a bunch of accounts customers don't know about and won't use, aside from some small amount of fees that will annoy customers) was undertaken deliberately, especially when it would only be a small part of the enterprise.

If it's 99% of your income, the CEO knows about it. If it's a tiny percentage, or none at all, the CEO might not know about it.