The detective is the real villain!

The detective faked evidence and was using that faked evidence to put an innocent black man away for 10 years, on the off-chance, that he might be able to catch Richard Gere. Where is this cop's sense of justice? His actions are about as justified as shooting an innocent man in the head, in order to catch a shoplifter. If Richard Gere's "crime" was bad, this cop's crime of faking the evidence is certainly much worse (from both an ethical and a legal perspective).

After I saw that, I stopped caring what Richard Gere had done. Everything Gere does in this film is for selfish purposes, but they're also rationalized (in Gere's mind) as actions he is doing for others. The cop is ready to willfully hurt others (both poor and rich) out of envy and greed for Gere's billions. Richard Gere's character (and even his greed) comes off as absolutely angelic in comparison.

For instance, by not turning himself in after the accident, nothing bad happens (except those things caused by the crooked cop). The girl is already dead, and the important things he could do for her at that point, he does (i.e. he goes to her funeral and shows love and affection to her family).

However, had he turned himself in, not only would he have gone to prison, but his entire company would have gone bankrupt, and his investors and all of his employees would have lost their jobs. By not turning himself in, he avoided a whole lot of pain to a whole lot of innocent people.

Furthermore, the people who might feel cheated by Gere don't. The guy who buys the company hardly blinks an eye at the new audit ("just another shrewd move by 'The Oracle'"). His wife, apparently already knew about the affair and the cooked books, and in the end, we find out she just wants the money.

(By the way, knowing about an affair, and pretending that you don't know, for the sake of your relationship is still dishonesty, it's just dishonesty for a different reason.)

As far as financials, Gere made a risky bet and then fraudulently covered it up, but it wasn't outright theft or even embezzlement. Furthermore, in the end, he saved his company and his investors, which is ultimately, what they were paying him to do.

Lastly, I understand why his daughter is disillusioned by her father's corruption, but I don't think she was thinking clearly when she asks "why didn't you involve me in this?" Had Gere involved her in the earlier stages of his decision to paper it up, she might have been held liable for the crime.

All in all, I found myself rooting for Gere, especially given all the evil perpetrated by the government in trying to bring him to "justice".