"Between 1998 and 2003, there were a number of promoters selling an S corporation ESOP arrangement that claimed to be able to funnel most or all the benefits to a few top managers. [The authors] believe as many as 2,000 of these plans were set up for at least long enough to file a Form 5500 report.... While they were set up as plans, few operated very long if, indeed, they ever actually went past the initial filings stage.... [R]esearch shows that ESOPs companies grow about 2.5% per year faster than would have been expected absent an ESOP. Compounding that number between 2002 and 2012 yields about 2.2 million participants."