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Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

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Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#381

Post by bloodyplonker22 »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #238
numair wrote: post #163

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.

I don't know Chamath, but his presence online makes me think he is shady af. His whole TSLA "selling my shares while telling everyone else not to sell" scheme alone gets him a black mark in my book. Then all the SPAC stuff he did makes it even more unwholesome.

Chamath is about as shady as a typical shady salesperson, but I would not say he's nearly as shady as a Trevor Milton.

Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#382

Post by endymi0n »

mbesto wrote: post #332
jacquesm wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how many of these cases do you miss because the recipients use a not easy traceable proxy entity to collect the payment? That's the 'million dollar question', and in some cases substantially more than one million. I think the reason a good number of these people get caught is (1) things like the Panama papers and other leaks like that have made it harder to do this, and have also brought the not insubstantial resou…

> It's typically quite a surprise when we start asking about the activities of companies that the other party believes are well hidden. Also, if you do tech DD - most techies are happy to share details that unknowingly might expose because they tend to be less business savvy. CEO/CFO's on the other hand...

Haha, true. Was most probably me who let that deal fall through back then when I admitted the algorithm was basically a bunch of haphazard excel sheets.

Managed to BS the second team way better after that — and they were eager enough to have a share of the rocket ship at all cost.

Guess they weren‘t too happy losing most if their series B invest.

Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#383

Post by sjg007 »

sizzle wrote: post #348
hintymad wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's amazing. Kail was a star in Netflix. He got promoted to VP only a few months after he joined Netflix as a director. I don't get what the point is of committing such crimes.

How do you prove your value to get promoted like this after a measly few months on the job? Play golf with the CEO? I’m seriously wage slaving to make senior leadership at my org Rich, just for the promise of not being fired and not being promoted.

He said the right thing at a party is my guess.

Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#384

Post by myaltacct415 »

Kranar wrote: post #188
numair wrote: post #163

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.

Can you go into some details or point me to some sources?

He talks about it in interviews. While he was at Facebook, he started an investment fund outside of work. Now I do not want to get sued for mischaracterizing what he did. You will have to listen to those interviews yourself.

Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#385

Post by cpb »

elliekelly wrote: post #162
cpb wrote: post #37

I guess some people just don't get quality onboarding content from compliance.

I checked your profile hoping maybe you had a quality onboarding compliance content startup. Maybe one day...

Aww thanks! The one thing that sticks after all those clicks: don't accept deal sweeteners outside of the papered contract!

Easy to say when no one's offering, I guess.

Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#386

Post by Kranar »

myaltacct415 wrote: post #384
Kranar wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you go into some details or point me to some sources?

He talks about it in interviews. While he was at Facebook, he started an investment fund outside of work. Now I do not want to get sued for mischaracterizing what he did. You will have to listen to those interviews yourself.

I am aware of the investment fund he started both while he was at Facebook and after it. Neither of them were done in secret and in fact Facebook was an investor in it. Furthermore the companies that the funds invested in had no business dealings with Facebook. You can see the list of companies it invested in as it's public info.

Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#387

Post by bpodgursky »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #311
bpodgursky wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “The startups that paid to play, and possibly many others, believed this was how Netflix did business,” the prosecutors said. You're actually accusing the prosecutor of getting it wrong... which seems a bit arrogant.

The prosecutors were making a case against Kail. If they make it seem like the startups were complicit or even proposed it, that would hurt their case against Kail. These arrangements were obviously illegal, and it beggars belief to suggest that so many startups were unaware of that.

If complicity weakens the case against Kail, why are you suggesting the startups did something illegal? You can't have it both ways. The complicity is either a crime alongside Kail's crime (and completely independent), or it isn't.

Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#388

Post by ng12 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #365

This article is a bit old (back in May), I'm curious what the latest is. One thing I find extremely strange is that, I looked this guy up online, and his Twitter feed is just so, well, "tech mundane". He seems to tweet nearly daily, e.g. yesterday he tweeted "Love the new Macbook Pro features/options, but to armchair #cloud, I'd limit the local storage option and improve the performance/availablity/resiliency of #iCl…

I would assume you're not the type to post buzzword filled nonsense in the first place. I often think that the people who fill my LinkedIn with posts like that are generally a little detached from reality.

Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#389

Post by sundvor »

kwertyoowiyop wrote: post #265
throw4823442 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work for a company that actively sought out and hired the adult children of high level executives. Even those that weren't very competent were hired since if they were part of the same Ivy League alumni network. I have no knowledge of the business dealings but the company definitely appeared to benefit from having those connections.

“Nepotism”

It's huge in Australia. Big Coal/Fossil has its fingers deep into government and apparently no-one thinks this is bad.

We're still approving new coal and gas projects in 2021, and milage taxing EVs with not a CO² vehicle tax in sight...

Re: Former Netflix executive convicted of receiving bribes from contractors

#390

Post by sundvor »

numbsafari wrote: post #44
csmythe15 wrote: post #2

Hey, I'm the author of the article -- just wanted to point out that what made this story interesting to me is the implication that this kind of conduct could be very widespread. Prosecutors definitely hinted at that. If anyone knows of any similar stories, I'd be very interested in hearing them. christie.smythe@businessofbusiness.com

The amount of "I don't get why this is wrong?" going on in this thread would seem to support the prosecutors' view that this is a widespread practice. Long ago, before Dotcom went Dotbomb, I worked for a firm where the CIO was being paid kickbacks by our hardware reseller. He was terminated for other reasons and, shortly after he left, our head of network ops got a call from the distributor asking where they should s…

Yes, I'm flabbergasted by a lot of the responses. I've kept clinging on to the idea that everyone must have a moral compass, but the last few years are really hitting home that I may be in a minority to have such clear ideas about what is obviously wrong, and what is obviously right.

Almost everything Trump did or said was in the former category, he cared only for his own benefit it would seem.

A huge number of people don't get why they should vaccinate to protect others perhaps not as immunity fortunate as themselves.

"Myself first, second, and then my fellow, if I stand to gain." (Loosely translated from the Norwegian "først meg selv, så meg selv, og så min neste, hvis det er til eget beste")

Edit: Perhaps I'm clinging on to old ideas. Everything is "obviously" personal choice these days, and who am I to say my values are "better" than theirs. That we should all strive to "do good" is not universal, because why should people be forced to or expected to look after anyone but themselves?

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