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Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

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Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#211

Post by mannykannot »

jacquesm wrote: post #163
flybrand wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can that claim be made?

By carefully reading their statement and to realize that they have very explicitly not said that they are assuming responsibility for these figures in their role as CAs but that this is merely Binance's opinion expressed on Mazar's letterhead.

> Merely Binance's opinion expressed on Mazar's letterhead.

This alone is at least a gray area, ethically, and not necessarily in just this case.

In this particular case, it has made it possible for Binance’s chief strategy officer, Patrick Hillmann, to say things which he subsequently described as “parroting others’ descriptions of this as an independent audit.” Mazar's response so far: "No comment."

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#212

Post by prepend »

woodruffw wrote: post #4

From TFA: > The reserve report, released Wednesday, is a five-page letter from a partner at the South African affiliate of the global accounting firm Mazars. It contained three numbers. The letter wasn’t an audit report, didn’t address the effectiveness of the company’s internal financial-reporting controls, and said Mazars did “not express an opinion or an assurance conclusion,” meaning it wasn’t vouching for the nu…

Isn’t it telling that this work wasn’t done by the “big four?”

Given that the Big Four like money and are ostensibly the biggest and oldest and with the best reputation. Any perceived shaky but actually strong firm would come out gangbusters with “Old Accounting firm stakes its reputation that we aren’t full of shit.”

After the death/execution/seppuku of Anderson after Enron, the remaining four seem extra conservative these days so they would likely only take on a job if it was reputable. Even if it means hundreds of millions of dollars in fees.

This is an example where old fuddy duddy finance should help me as a consumer.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#213

Post by Geee »

grugagag wrote: post #40
xiphias2 wrote: post #5

Even if Binance is 100% solvent, big crypto money needs to be stored with multisig between multiple companies. I advise everyone to use casa hodl for storing btc and eth if they are afraid of doing it themselves.

Everyone seems to unison on keeping it off any exchange or any other unregulated scam. If Casa Hodl goes with your money you almost deserve it

Casa is not a custodian. It's a multisig solution. https://keys.casa/how-it-works

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#214

Post by snapcaster »

anyfactor wrote: post #140
dottrap wrote: post #71

This YouTuber (Sasha Yanshin) did a scrutiny of the errors or omissions made with the different wallet checks in the report. This is the most detailed tear down I've been able to find so far on the Internet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42VnEndJ9mo

Even though I would like to casually watch a video on Binance but I am going to pass on that channel. That channel is defined by red backgrounds, down arrows and fire. I firmly believe that one should be open to every opinion as long as they have a built a good framework aka BS detector. I feel like this video is not going to be a casual watch for me and I am definitely not invested in Binance that much to fact check…

I tend to agree with you, but i'm also sympathetic to the youtubers trying to maximize their engagement since this style appears to be what does it

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#215

Post by bananapub »

they're of course not actually trying to calm investors - if they wanted to do that, they would just publish an actual audit report of a snapshot of their finances. instead, they want investors to feel calm and leave them alone to their elaborate deceptions.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#217

Post by patentatt »

prepend wrote: post #212
woodruffw wrote: post #4

From TFA: > The reserve report, released Wednesday, is a five-page letter from a partner at the South African affiliate of the global accounting firm Mazars. It contained three numbers. The letter wasn’t an audit report, didn’t address the effectiveness of the company’s internal financial-reporting controls, and said Mazars did “not express an opinion or an assurance conclusion,” meaning it wasn’t vouching for the nu…

Isn’t it telling that this work wasn’t done by the “big four?” Given that the Big Four like money and are ostensibly the biggest and oldest and with the best reputation. Any perceived shaky but actually strong firm would come out gangbusters with “Old Accounting firm stakes its reputation that we aren’t full of shit.” After the death/execution/seppuku of Anderson after Enron, the remaining four seem extra conservativ…

Also, same firm that Trump worked with. I see a potential pattern here.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#218

Post by poutrathor »

prepend wrote: post #212
woodruffw wrote: post #4

From TFA: > The reserve report, released Wednesday, is a five-page letter from a partner at the South African affiliate of the global accounting firm Mazars. It contained three numbers. The letter wasn’t an audit report, didn’t address the effectiveness of the company’s internal financial-reporting controls, and said Mazars did “not express an opinion or an assurance conclusion,” meaning it wasn’t vouching for the nu…

Isn’t it telling that this work wasn’t done by the “big four?” Given that the Big Four like money and are ostensibly the biggest and oldest and with the best reputation. Any perceived shaky but actually strong firm would come out gangbusters with “Old Accounting firm stakes its reputation that we aren’t full of shit.” After the death/execution/seppuku of Anderson after Enron, the remaining four seem extra conservativ…

Mazars is 5th in Europe, 24 400 employees and it makes ~2 bilions in turnover.

this above comment is not bringing much value to the discussion I think.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#219

Post by kasey_junk »

prepend wrote: post #212
woodruffw wrote: post #4

From TFA: > The reserve report, released Wednesday, is a five-page letter from a partner at the South African affiliate of the global accounting firm Mazars. It contained three numbers. The letter wasn’t an audit report, didn’t address the effectiveness of the company’s internal financial-reporting controls, and said Mazars did “not express an opinion or an assurance conclusion,” meaning it wasn’t vouching for the nu…

Isn’t it telling that this work wasn’t done by the “big four?” Given that the Big Four like money and are ostensibly the biggest and oldest and with the best reputation. Any perceived shaky but actually strong firm would come out gangbusters with “Old Accounting firm stakes its reputation that we aren’t full of shit.” After the death/execution/seppuku of Anderson after Enron, the remaining four seem extra conservativ…

Mazars isn’t a fly by night operation. They are old and big, just not in the big 4.

Traditional finance views Mazars audits (which this isn’t) the same as a big 4 audit.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#220

Post by moneywoes »

dhruval wrote: post #129
woodruffw wrote: post #4

From TFA: > The reserve report, released Wednesday, is a five-page letter from a partner at the South African affiliate of the global accounting firm Mazars. It contained three numbers. The letter wasn’t an audit report, didn’t address the effectiveness of the company’s internal financial-reporting controls, and said Mazars did “not express an opinion or an assurance conclusion,” meaning it wasn’t vouching for the nu…

Former auditor here: 1. That is standard wording for the report of "agreed upon procedures". This is not an audit it just means they only did a certain set of procedures rather than an audit. 2. Audits aren't really able to detect all fraud, especially if the management is sophisticated. But if the fraud results in obvious material discrepancies then the audit would catch it and the auditor would resign (unless they…

Curious did you switch from auditing to something else?
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