The long-term outlook only matters to long-term investors. If you can carry out such activities discreetly such that those investors are oblivious, you can reap the profits by selling up before the shit hits the fan. There are enough sociopaths [0] in business that this situation must have occurred several times over.

[0] http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2011/06/14/why-som...