HR and rules are for the little people. VPs can do pretty much whatever they want for a LOOOONG time at large tech companies before any consequence catches up with them.
This isn’t true at the big company I’m at. I’ve seen several VPs fired in the 10 years I’ve been here.
That doesn't make anything I said less valid. You just experienced the losers of the internal game of thrones, the question is "fired why?" and "how long did it take?"
For inappropriate behavior, and fired very quickly
Big pharma CTO mandated the use of a certain software while everyone knew they were coming from the company and sits on their board. I'm certain the kickbacks are still happening but in different forms: job, advisory role ...so on and so forth.