How to detect business fraud

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Looking only at numbers is not enough to spot fraud, says one of our most-read articles of 2020

of people, Carson Block found his vocation by accident. In 2010 he was living in China and trying to set up a business. His father asked him to look at Orient Paper, a Chinese firm listed in New York. He scoured the company’s filings and became doubtful of its claims. That scepticism grew when he visited a factory. He decided to publish a damning report. But first he would bet against the stock to cover his costs. The report went viral. The share price collapsed. Lawsuits were soon flying.

Mr Block made his name angling for Chinese scams. His company’s name derives from a Chinese proverb: muddy waters make it easy to catch fish. China is to stock fraud what Silicon Valley is to technology, he says. But there is plenty of dodgy accounting, albeit of a less blatant kind, outside it. Muddy Waters has evolved into a short-seller with a global purview.

Each stock fraud is fraudulent in its own way. But there are common elements. One is a breach between earnings as defined by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and non-measures. Another is an increase in “days payable outstanding”, a yardstick of how long it takes a company to settle bills with suppliers. Delay boosts cashflow, at least for a while. So does gathering more quickly payments you are owed.

Muddy Waters has built a reputation for diligent research. A pronouncement by Mr Block has the power to move prices. That worries regulators. Like Chandler’s detective, Mr Block seems to take as many beatings from cops as from bad guys. Even admirers worry about possible errors and lapses. But he is refreshingly candid about his flaws. A sense of alienation from his “postcard-perfect” surroundings as a youth bred an urge to expose the shallow, the vapid and the fake.

 

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😆😂🤣🥸 Guess who is going to hell for this... lol.

this is terrible news

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