Quantifying the Ritual Fraud Beneath Compliance Theater: Government Contracting 101

“They didn’t just break the rules. They turned the rules into rituals— then hollowed them out and wore the shell.” The System Wears Lipstick You know the look. A federal contract labeled “Women-Owned Small Business.” A shiny press release. A prime contractor with no real infrastructure. A subcontractor doing 80% of the work—but getting none of the accountability. And behind it all? The same old players in new costumes. This isn’t a one-off. It’s a pattern . A ritual . A multi-billion-dollar game of hide-the-prime, dress-the-shell. And we’ve given it a name: pass-through theater . Total Addressable Misconduct (TAM): A Market Sizing of Fraud We talk about corruption as if it’s intangible. Invisible. “Unmeasurable.” But if you can measure a market, you can measure a fraud. So let’s run the numbers. That’s not a rounding error. That’s an economy. Over five years? Nearly $100 billion in what we now call Total Addressable Misconduct. Ghost Labor & Ritua...