Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

pubsonline.informs.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 101 posts

Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

#91

Post by sjsdaiuasgdia »

timacles wrote: post #60
sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely agree. We need strong rule of law, and we need to start holding everyone accountable to the law. The era of "I'm too rich / popular / influential / 'important' to prosecute" must end.

well i've got some bad news, that era has now entered its maximum power phase. Our government has literally been systematically deconstructed to become unable to govern.

Lol that's not news.

It does sound like you might be giving / have given up though? Fuck that.

Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

#92

Post by sjsdaiuasgdia »

brazukadev wrote: post #62
sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I did not take it as virtue signaling at all! I do actually admire you for looking at a dirty game and saying "I will not play this, I will find a better way." If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to create the Joseph Welch Foundation. The foundation will give monetary awards to people who have demonstrably pushed back against corruption, lies, and bullshit. For those who don't recognize the name, Joseph Welch is…

> If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to create the Joseph Welch Foundation. The foundation will give monetary awards to people who have demonstrably pushed back against corruption, lies, and bullshit. If you do that, given enough time, you will be awarding people that learnt how to game the award. Back to corruption, lies and bullshit.

"Lesson learned, never try"

Have some fucking hope, man.

Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

#93

Post by DonHopkins »

And then there was DEN (Digital Entertainment Network), as immortalized in this classic documentary originally produced and published by Fucked Company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W41Ttr73TqU

Digital Entertainment Network

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Entertainment_Network

Brock Pierce and his Chestahedron, Unicorn Wedding, MMPORG Currency Scams, Crypto Scams, Presidential Campaign, Steve Bannon Collaboration, and Deep Jeffrey Epstein Relationship:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock_Pierce

#BrockPierce from @AnOpenSecret on #LastWeekTonight with John Oliver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TAnAYa8gas

#AnOpenSecret #ChadsWorld produced by DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT #AnOpenSecret

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkoH7sqJOm8

The Decline and Fall of an Ultra Rich Online Gaming Empire

https://www.wired.com/2008/11/ff-ige/

Brock Pierce's Relationship With Jeffrey Epstein Went Deeper Than Anyone Knew

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/brock-pierces-relationsh...

Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

#95

Post by dannyw »

bilekas wrote: post #61
bogzz wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SpaceX IPO is perhaps the latest and most damning outcome of that gutting.

Seems the current SEC head is a moron. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/sec-chair-defends-...

That's so subjective. The idea isn't new, many have proposed twice-annually earnings reports; for example the LTSE (Long-Term Stock Exchange) has been trying to make it happen for a while.

If you have worked at a public or large company, chances are, you've probably seen first-hand negative examples of quarter-by-quarter optimization for quarterly earnings; that's far from the "global maxima" or "greatest long-term good".

Whether the downsides of less public/investor transparency, less frequent information, etc outweigh the (potential benefits) is a genuine question. There are plenty of words to describe the current SEC chair, this _isn't_ an example of moronic IMO.

Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

#96

Post by ArcHound »

timacles wrote: post #66
sohrob wrote: post #44

"Entrepreneurs construct, perform, and protect illusory appearances (façades) that externally project high-growth performance to audiences while masking ventures’ actual underperformance." This would accurately describe a some of the startups I've worked at. ;-P

This is literally the American way. Everyone does this at every level, from Execs down to middle managers, for every possible metric.

The issue is that Russians have the patent on this method (see e.g. the Potemkin village).

The Americans were seen as the god-honest people speaking the uncomfortable truth to people in power, supported by the 2A.

Note: there are trace elements of satire and irony present in this comment.

Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

#97

Post by ArcHound »

iamnothere wrote: post #68
27183 wrote: post #43

Isn't venture capital just playing along too, though? They also benefit from all the myth making and hype storms, even if they are technically getting defrauded while funding it. They could actually audit the companies they invest in, and go after the frauds. The Nikola example is a great one--if anyone had looked carefully behind the marketing the fraud should have been obvious. But by and large they don't, really.…

ZIRP made it unprofitable to chase down fraud; money was too cheap and attention too scarce. We’ve been in a tightening cycle for a while now, but many still held out hope for another drop in interest rates. Now that rates are going crazy, I suspect we’ll see a shift to much tighter vetting and ongoing monitoring.

I wonder. Did we get ZIRP because we had so many profitable ideas back in the day or were those ideas only viable because of ZIRP?

Meaning roughly: these tech startups guys are regularly pumping out multi-million companies and all they need is two college dropouts with laptops and an initial investment. So if I see two college dropouts I should give them money, right?

Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

#98

Post by purplemoonx »

close04 wrote: post #40
akiselev wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't have worked, period. You can't use capillary blood for the kind of blood tests they were claiming to. It's statistically impossible because the sample isn't big enough and drawing more capillary blood doesn't improve the SNR. Two samples taken at the same time from different spots on the same finger can yield wildly different results. Everyone in diagnostic medicine knows this (they've been dealing with t…

> but tech VCs don't do due diligence anymore They hope they can cash out before the bubble bursts, whatever that bubble is.

Exactly, like the VC is benevolent making sure all ventures are legal and pure lol

Half the time the scam was their idea and the “founder” is placed

Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

#99

Post by kingkandu »

In Silicon Valley, every acquihire that zeros out common stock while giving lumpsums + golden handcuffs to the founders is fraud where the victims are employees without legal protections.

Happens everyday. YC was doing some lip service about addressing this like 10 years ago and never did shit because failed founders and employees are essential fuel for the machine.

Re: Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

#100

Post by brazukadev »

sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #92
brazukadev wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to create the Joseph Welch Foundation. The foundation will give monetary awards to people who have demonstrably pushed back against corruption, lies, and bullshit. If you do that, given enough time, you will be awarding people that learnt how to game the award. Back to corruption, lies and bullshit.

"Lesson learned, never try" Have some fucking hope, man.

humans are corrupt, you can't create a system that reward humans and not expect corruption, it has nothing to do with hope.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results and all that

Post reply on HN