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Anyone read the sourcereport? Anyone have a working link to it?
There you go
[Report]
?
It's always hard to believe oppo research like this when it is paid for by a fund with a short position. Especially when he cannot reveal the fund that is paying him.
Agreed, but would you risk your reputation on making that assertion?
A lot of people can get comfortable taking that risk, because "fraud" has become such an overused word lately that it doesn't have clear meaning anymore. It's become a schoolyard insult . . anytime someone is accused of being dishonest in any way at all, I guarantee you the f-word is sure to be part of it.
Good example is Herbalife - a lot of people claimed to be putting their reputation on the line: Ackman, Icahn, Herbalife's CEO, Herbalife's advisors (Moelis & Boeis Schiller) . . there was no shortage of people saying "would I put my reputation on the line if this [was/wasn't] a fraud?".
At the end of the day, even with a lot of facts out, nobody really knows who's a liar and who's a fraud in that whole story. None of the individuals/firms mentioned above have had their reputation meaningfully hurt by it, because fraud is a vague thing.
GE likes to game the accounting system a bit; anyone who's followed the company closely knows that. Fact that this accuser wants to be dramatic and call it fraud, I don't think tells me much. My guess is some of their more aggressive accounting tactics will be exposed and highlighted, but if I already know about them then they're no secret. And this guy will walk away being able to say he exposed a fraud. On to the next one.
Does GE have fraud? Likely, but this sounds like the Fusion GPS Trump peeing on a bed bullshit story.
Seems like the majority of the argument is based on: 1) Long Term Care insurance liabilities are waaaay understated. Only insurance I need is a paycheck so who the fuck knows? 2) GE boosts cash positions by playing the international business unit multi-PnL game. Yeah probably why not seems like there are a lot of short reports alleging that about multinationals this year. 3) They change formatting, intimidate analysts from research by overstating complexity of calculations and don't give full PnLs/NWC frequently. Again a lot of multinationals 4) They hide losses and boost margin by spinning off BUs. Classic M&A.
Probably enough truth in LTC liability undervaluation and opaque reporting between all the slandering HF short language to put them under.
Had a HUGE laugh at Markopolos' interview. 'Why did you decide to investigate GE?' 'They moved their HQ to Boston. My city. You don't run scams in my city.' Really shoulda added 'I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman.'
News to Markopolos, there are a lot of scams in Boston...
Markopolos always struck me as super bitter he wasn't given the "proper" credit for figuring out Madoff before everyone else. Not sure what to make of this report.
If it's true it's massive though.
I am always wary of these when they are presented as the next Enron, but the GE response is not encouraging and make you wonder how true the allegations are. It mostly focus on discrediting the messenger rather than the message. given the lack of transparency with regards to divisional financial results, it really wouldn't surprise me that they overstated income and understated debt, but I am not sure that it would reach Enron level
I guess market decided it's all good
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