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Intrade discovers a $700k cash shortfall

intrade.com

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Re: Intrade discovers a $700k cash shortfall

#11

Post by jacquesm »

Ovid wrote: post #7

Reminds me of the time I worked for one company and prior to going public, we called in some Sarbanes-Oxley consultants to vet us. After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), I showed up one day and an accountant in the corner had disappeared. Seems that he had a gambling problem, but was allowed to both cut checks and sign them ( fal…

> After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"),

If they found that rogue accountant it wasn't all that ridiculous after all. That one requirement was (probably, I don't know the context) ridiculous but the compliance effort apparently wasn't.

On another note, I have had a customer a while ago that would have been extremely happy if they had had a printed, filed copy of all their source code.

Re: Intrade discovers a $700k cash shortfall

#12

Post by namank »

Ovid wrote: post #7

Reminds me of the time I worked for one company and prior to going public, we called in some Sarbanes-Oxley consultants to vet us. After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), I showed up one day and an accountant in the corner had disappeared. Seems that he had a gambling problem, but was allowed to both cut checks and sign them ( fal…

Why filing? As method for backing up IP?

Re: Intrade discovers a $700k cash shortfall

#13

Post by eps »

nhaehnle wrote: post #10
Ovid wrote: post #7

Reminds me of the time I worked for one company and prior to going public, we called in some Sarbanes-Oxley consultants to vet us. After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), I showed up one day and an accountant in the corner had disappeared. Seems that he had a gambling problem, but was allowed to both cut checks and sign them ( fal…

Are you able to discuss in more detail what exactly helped find him?

Your good old financial audit. Debits must match credits, and all debits must make sense.

Re: Intrade discovers a $700k cash shortfall

#16

Post by jrockway »

namank wrote: post #12
Ovid wrote: post #7

Reminds me of the time I worked for one company and prior to going public, we called in some Sarbanes-Oxley consultants to vet us. After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), I showed up one day and an accountant in the corner had disappeared. Seems that he had a gambling problem, but was allowed to both cut checks and sign them ( fal…

Why filing? As method for backing up IP?

I think they like filing because it's immutable storage. An engineer can't write code to change the filed-away code as easily as they can the on-disk source code.

I don't know much about SOX, but based on how I've seen it implemented at various places it seems to be a law that says "it is illegal to write computer programs, so don't let anyone do it! have a good day and have fun running a business!"

Re: Intrade discovers a $700k cash shortfall

#17

Post by jaggederest »

jacquesm wrote: post #11
Ovid wrote: post #7

Reminds me of the time I worked for one company and prior to going public, we called in some Sarbanes-Oxley consultants to vet us. After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), I showed up one day and an accountant in the corner had disappeared. Seems that he had a gambling problem, but was allowed to both cut checks and sign them ( fal…

> After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), If they found that rogue accountant it wasn't all that ridiculous after all. That one requirement was (probably, I don't know the context) ridiculous but the compliance effort apparently wasn't. On another note, I have had a customer a while ago that would have been extremely happy if they…

If your source code is your life, a printed backup in ocr font isn't that insane. $100 in printing costs? Cheaper than most long-term backup.

Re: Intrade discovers a $700k cash shortfall

#18

Post by nandemo »

johnw wrote: post #8

Sounds like the writings been on the wall for a while now. They were fined by the CFTC in late 2012 and had to withdraw from the US market for not being a licensed exchange [1]. Most of their customers were in the US so this was a major blow to their business. I wonder if there's an opportunity here for a Bitcoin based predictions market? [1] http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/how-the-us-killed-intrade

It looks like their demise was due to fraud/embezzlement. Not sure how bitcoin would help here.

Also, users of such an exchange would be heavily exposed to the volatility of BTC/$major_currency when making long-term bets. Unless one doesn't care about currency risk, but it's not easy to ignore it unless as long as one's future expenses are still pegged to $major_currency.

Re: Intrade discovers a $700k cash shortfall

#20

Post by jlgreco »

jaggederest wrote: post #17
jacquesm wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After a thorough SOX compliance effort (which was ridiculous - one recommendation was "print out all source code and file it"), If they found that rogue accountant it wasn't all that ridiculous after all. That one requirement was (probably, I don't know the context) ridiculous but the compliance effort apparently wasn't. On another note, I have had a customer a while ago that would have been extremely happy if they…

If your source code is your life, a printed backup in ocr font isn't that insane. $100 in printing costs? Cheaper than most long-term backup.

You would presumably be doing more traditional long-term backup anyway of course; it is not like you would be saving money on that.
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