Will 2018 be the year of corporate executive perp walks?

Last year we saw the spontaneous resignations of bold face business names leaving cushy jobs for no reason other than “to spend more time with the family.”

From Alphabet’s Chairman Eric Schmidt to Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter to John Skipper over at ESPN, all left their leadership positions suddenly in the second half of 2017.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick left suddenly while large investors began looking into his “leadership qualities” in heading up the web-based taxi service.

Presidential candidate and Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman said she was stepping down suddenly, while Irene Rosenfeld, who led Mondelez — the maker of Oreos and Ritz crackers, both exited in November.

Other notable long-time executive exits are: Jeff Immelt from GE, Howard Schultz from Starbucks, Mickey Drexler of The Gap and Marissa Mayer from Yahoo.

While I’m not saying these former execs will be perp walked, I believe 2018 will see charges brought against business leaders who did not take the walk-away option, having charges brought against them for a various illegal activities.

There are numerous reports of sealed indictments being handed down by Justice Department late in 2017. The number of charges is stated to be as high as 10,000 indictments.

Just as an aside, I found it interesting that on Monday Jan. 1 the entire computer system for passports operated by U.S. Custom service’s passport system and Border Patrol failed, which meant no one could enter or leave the US for many hours.

Putting these points together tell me that something is afoot that will probably eclipse the numerous sexual harassment charges brought against bold face names in late 2017 and still continue today.