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CEO of Cyber Fraud Startup NS8 Arrested by FBI, Facing Fraud Charges

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Re: CEO of Cyber Fraud Startup NS8 Arrested by FBI, Facing Fraud Charges

#161
Cursorily examining this company's web page:

https://www.ns8.com/en-us

It seems to me like this company's base value proposition, that is, for any company's monetary transactions with customers, give that transaction a risk assessment score based on whatever data about the customer is available.

That, in its simplest, most elemenatary, most basic form, is a good value proposition.

Companies would find value in software which could deliver that proposition (a related idea that comes to mind is if PayPal decoupled their fraud prevention software, and sold that software to businesses separately, then that software would deliver an equivalent value).

So the base value proposition of this company (assuming their software actually works) -- is a valid one.

What seems to have done this company in, however, (if the article is to be believed) is accounting fraud, which may have been preceeded by lack of customers, lack of revenue or expected revenue.

It's always an interesting question to me (correlation vs. causation-wise) if lack of sales triggers accounting fraud, or if accounting fraud just sort of happens on its own...

You know, here's an idea for the FBI or other related investigative agencies -- you could, based on previous cases, create a list of "risk factors", each of which would count towards an overall "risk score" -- of something being seriously wrong at a company.

Such factors would include, but not be limited to: How much debt a company has to investors, how much revenue is it making relative to that debt, what is its growth rate, what is the age of the CEO, what industry is it in, etc., etc.

Grab all of that data, from all companies, run it through a machine learning algorithm, get a "risk score" for each and every company, then if you have nothing better to do (free time between other investigations), start investigating the companies with the highest "risk scores".

You know, you might call it "Cyber Fraud Detection Software" -- for large companies...

Then if that works well in the U.S. -- give the software (for free!) to all other countries!

Also, the same set of ideas and Machine Learning -- could be used to track wasteful government spending (foreign and domestic), or wasteful spending of so-called charitable organizations...

The possibilities are truly endless!

Re: CEO of Cyber Fraud Startup NS8 Arrested by FBI, Facing Fraud Charges

#162
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to give me an unscheduled couple of weeks off with pay, I'm perfectly cool with that--so long as you don't hold it against me that work doesn't get done. Don't expect me to take it out of my limited planned vacation time though.I have my own plans. That would be a big FU for me.

Sure, so maybe that is a sign that trading isn’t the right industry for you? I know firefighters often work 72 hour straight shifts. For a similar reason, I know being a firefighter isn’t the right career for me. I suspect some jobs need to optimize days off for things other than employee happiness. For trading specifically, they can generally make up for it with above average pay.

Fair enough. If you know the deal going in--e.g. you get 3 weeks of paid vacation but we will tell you when you have to take one/two of them with no notice. Certainly there are many jobs that have to schedule people, e.g. support, although there it's mostly about having to schedule well in advance and possible having to work at popular times. I am indeed fortunate to have a lot of flexibility.

Re: CEO of Cyber Fraud Startup NS8 Arrested by FBI, Facing Fraud Charges

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of it makes sense in the context of a well-run business with proper executives in place. That’s because these frauds don’t operate like a well-run business. Usually, the upper management teams are extremely lean. The business is broken up into different silos such that few people can see the big picture. Each is led to believe they are a tiny fraction of the overall revenue, giving them the impression that the b…

Damn what a good reply. You must’ve been burned/seen some shit in the past.

This all too often happens at other companies, many times inadvertently without any fraudulent intention, just by being not well-run.

And even when they end up raking in the bucks, for the shareholders it's nothing compared to what it could have been.

Re: CEO of Cyber Fraud Startup NS8 Arrested by FBI, Facing Fraud Charges

#164
post #156

I feel sorry for any CEO who actually steps down to spend more time with his/her family. That explanation has now more or less been completely co-opted by "Our CEO got caught in an embarrassing scandal and they need to fade from the public eye for a bit." I now assume that anyone who gives that reason on their way out must have done something terrible that is yet or about to come to light.

"I now assume that anyone who gives that reason on their way out must have done something terrible that is yet or about to come to light." Maybe you should think about that a little bit more if you really feel sorry.

Hmm, what do you have when you've got a fraudulent executive buried up to his neck in sand?

And everyone who should do something about it having their heads buried?

A. Misplaced sand.

Re: CEO of Cyber Fraud Startup NS8 Arrested by FBI, Facing Fraud Charges

#165
post #152

Innocent before proven Guilty but I have to say seeing all these CEOs being charged with Fraud is why there has been so much noise against Capitalism as a whole and CEOs get a bad rep by default. There are so many of us (working our butts off in the background without public stunts/investors etc) and then these idiots spoil it. Being a small bootstrapped CEO myself, I am always concerned about being as honest as poss…

The number of CEOs charged for fraud seems pretty small to me.

The smaller number could be a stronger indicator that many more are getting away with it.
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