The Wall Street Journal did a little review of corporate jet records, and guess what: corporate CEOs of public companies are regularly using shareholder money to fly themselves to resorts, on private jets. The particulars are quite disturbing!

The WSJ found that overall, "dozens of jets operated by publicly traded corporations made 30% or more of their trips to or from resort destinations, sometimes more than 50%." In essence, many publicly traded companies simply allow their executives to commute home and on vacation, by private jet, on investors' dime. The paper has several egregious examples of companies underreporting this type of travel, like, I don't know, this:

[Computer storage company EMC Corp.] pegged the cost to shareholders of [CEO Joseph] Tucci's personal flying at $664,079 over the four-year period, which represented 97% of all personal-aircraft usage for its executives. The Journal's estimate of the cost of EMC's flights to or from just the airports near the CEO's homes was closer to $3.1 million.

Thanks for the unintentional generosity, EMC investors! But don't worry, every CEO with a jet also has a Blackberry and a "home office," so, you know, work-related.

The WSJ actually can strike back at the plutocracy, when it wants to! Although (as John Cook pointed out to me), one company not discussed in this story: WSJ parent News Corp. But it can be found in the story's accompanying "Jet Tracker" database, under "News America." Flights to the Grenadines, Los Cabos, and much more!

[WSJ. Photo: AP]