25% of Wall Street execs believe you need to cheat to win

Surprise! Is it any wonder we have a serious corruption and ethics problem on Wall Street? What's worse is that these are the people who are writing the laws of the land and preventing the US and Europe from economic recovery.

In a survey of 500 senior executives in the United States and the UK, 26 percent of respondents said they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace, while 24 percent said they believed financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct to be successful.

Sixteen percent of respondents said they would commit insider trading if they could get away with it, according to Labaton Sucharow. And 30 percent said their compensation plans created pressure to compromise ethical standards or violate the law.

To be fair to Wall Street, they're above the law and they know it.