Mandi Glad, CEO of small coal producer Keaton Energy, says there is no chance of the company recovering the millions of rands' worth of coal filched from it in a scam by insiders. In one of the more daring corporate heists in recent years, senior managers at Keaton colluded with one of its customers and a logistics contractor to steal coal worth R25-million, wiping out the company's profit for the year."I've never been as disillusioned about human beings as I am right now," Glad told Business Times this week."If I tell you about the amount of sleep I've lost in the past six months ... about how these people, whom I would have trusted with my life, have let down not only me, but Keaton and my staff ... I'm appalled."She said the coal-theft ring had been operating for at least a year under the noses of management.story_article_left1Asked about the odds of recovering some of the stolen coal, she said: "Absolutely not. It is no longer in this country, but we have insurance of R5-million and we're hoping that we will recover that, and then, through civil action, a bit more."There are awkward questions about how such a well-oiled racket could have operated for so long without being detected."If anyone has ever been involved in something as elaborate as this, with so many parties colluding against you ... when you've got third-party independent reports being forged, when you've got customers involved ... I challenge anyone to [have] seen this," she said.Keaton is audited by internal auditors PwC and by external auditors KPMG. But Glad said that she didn't believe "even a forensic auditor would have picked this up."She said the thieves had exploited the fact that it takes three months to fill an export vessel with coal, during which it becomes unclear exactly how many tons of coal are actually on the ground.The company's share price tumbled 15% this week from R1.53 before recovering to close the week at R1.40 ...