181–190 of 413 posts
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We've changed the URL to that from https://www.businessofbusiness.com/articles/why-a-former-net... . Thanks!
add an indicator to indicate the admin changed what I (@ugwigr) posted. Materially changing the content your users post is wrong.
The DOJ press release is clearer than this article is: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-netflix-executiv... Some fun details: Kail did his criming through a shell LLC he set up called "Unix Mercenary". He took between 10-15% of the total billings for each of the companies he hooked up with this scheme. None of those companies were charged (more's the pity). They got him on mail fraud, wire fraud, honest se…
Kail ultimately received over $500,000 and stock options from these outside companies All this for 500k? Seems like a lot of trouble for the equivalent of a year as a C-Level.
It is possible that your perceptions of how easy it is to extract millions-scale dollars from the business world is skewed. Google suggests 1.7M is the median lifetime earnings in the US, 2.7 is the average. Getting that in a handful of deals could tempt all sorts of people.
I do not understand this. I mean, politicians do this all the time and do not go to jail (Spain). I do not mean people offer themselves for briving. But did anyone ever think what would happen if politicians did not have much power to regulate? Companies would not be able to lobby. That means there would not be nearly as much incentive to brive as there is today. Once a regulator is in the middle, the incentive for c…
There is less political corruption in the US than people think. Everything is so scrutinized these days, especially compared to the rest of the world. White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu's travel expenses scandal was a big deal at the time, and this was in 1992 (before social media) and the amount of $ was pretty small. I think insider trading is possible concern though, although that too has gotten considerabl…
E.g. a group with socioeconomic power is corrupting a law in order to serve their own interests.
And US is very well known for its lobbying that people are trying to limit.
> There was just one catch to landing that deal: It had to hire the streaming company’s vice president of IT operations, Michael Kail, as a consultant and an advisor, and pay him with fees and stock options. I completely get how a startup would take this deal, however gross it is, but what I don't understand is how the exec got away with it from Netflix's side. And the fact this wasn't just 1 but 8 other startups he…
The journalist got it wrong. The startups weren't victims. They were clearly complicit in the crime. They could have very easily reported the bribery scheme to the Netflix board and gotten him fired, but they took the contract instead. The DOJ claimed that the people at Netflix who used the services assumed they were evaluating the services and not paying for them. There are many better articles about this story from…
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Thanks, this is indeed a better source. A lot of people here are saying this is incredibly common which is frankly pretty surprising to me. Does it really happen through shell LLCs? I am definitely aware of execs prioritizing startups they've invested in, which is... not a great look. But this seems to be a different thing. Kail wasn't an investor. He explicitly drafted agreements that paid him a fraction of the mone…
We always check the corporate registries to see if any of the legal entities the execs of a company are related to are making substantial turnover from either the company we are looking at, or a subsidiary. In 200+ DDs this has happened a handful of times. So I would not say it is a common thing but it definitely does happen, and often enough that we feel the need to at least try to establish if it is the case during…
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People often set up an LLC for their consulting thinking it will help with 1) taxes and 2) liability. But neither of those are quite right: 1) the same tax deductions are available on your normal schedule C 2) while acting on behalf of your LLC you’re still personally liable for your actions (let alone your illegal schemes).
From my understanding, an LLC does help with _financial_ liability - if the company fails and goes bankrupt, your personal assets generally won't be on the line. Obviously, an LLC cannot shield you from criminal liability.
(disclaimer: I work for Stripe which had a product that works like that, but not anywhere near that team)
So this guy traded his reputation and possibly his freedom for some small kickbacks? When his other option was stay at Netflix as a VP? When RSUs were around $9 (current stock price: $635)? I wonder how much money he threw away assuming he had stayed 5-6 years instead. $5m? $10m?
If this is all illegal, the stories I was told by early Facebook employees about how Chamath made his money are more confusing than ever.
This is so common it’s hard not to do. Not doing it definitely stunted my startup but it’s a lifestyle company and I don’t mind building slower. Edit: I should add that while I was working at a FAANG (before doing a startup) the team I was on would constantly be blocked from building X only for a VP to buy a company that said they did X but didn’t. Because we still needed X we would buy a new company each year. We co…
I do not understand this. I mean, politicians do this all the time and do not go to jail (Spain). I do not mean people offer themselves for briving. But did anyone ever think what would happen if politicians did not have much power to regulate? Companies would not be able to lobby. That means there would not be nearly as much incentive to brive as there is today. Once a regulator is in the middle, the incentive for c…
There is less political corruption in the US than people think. Everything is so scrutinized these days, especially compared to the rest of the world. White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu's travel expenses scandal was a big deal at the time, and this was in 1992 (before social media) and the amount of $ was pretty small. I think insider trading is possible concern though, although that too has gotten considerabl…
This is not what I see at all. In fact, the more I researched about USA lately, the more surprised I was about all the polarization. Even more, and this one disappointed me even more: the USA I see today, the discourses I see, the principles I see being applied is like destroying the pillars that founded that nation.
I am not american, but I really, really, I mean, really admire the foundations on which that country was founded. You are destroying them IMHO.
For some (non-casual) reason USA has been prosperous, the cradle of the modern civilization (with all its downsides, I know many of them, yes) and that reason was the mindset of having opportunities and chances to improve your lives without the nose of all those bureaucrats getting into your lives.
The media you mention, the control, the politicians, the regulations. Each of those is a door to corruption. De-regulation (or minimal regulation, if that cannot exist) is by its own right the least corrupt of the systems: it does not give chances for favors and crony capitalism.