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Another famous short seller, Citron, issued their counterargument to this report: https://citronresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Citron-Issues-Comment-on

Another famous short seller, Citron, issued their counterargument to this report: https://citronresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Citron-Issues-Comment-on-General-Electric-and-Markopolos-Report.pdf https://citronresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Citron...

cairo_x 7y ago
edit: turns out this rebuttal was by Andrew Left, a serial activist short seller himself, who was banned from trading in Hong Kong for falsifying reports on his website. LOL. Citron says the report didn't "pass the smell test". It's quite a lengthy report. One could simply read it and make a point by point rebuttal. But they don't do that at all. They say: > The credibility of Mr. Markopolos has to be questioned immediately when he was asked on CNBC and other media why he chose GE now. To this he responded: “They moved their headquarters to Boston last year. My hometown. I don’t appreciate when you’re running a scam in my hometown.” They then go on to frame this as a giant 'AHAH! Gotcha.' Instead of rebutting the actual report. They then go on to claim that "Aggressive accounting" is not fraud. LOL. I nearly fell out of my fucking chair when I read that one. HOW DARE YOU, SIR. IT'S NOT FRAUD. IT'S AGGRESSIVE ACCOUNTING. wut's aggressive accounting? Aggressive accounting refers to an accounting department's deliberate and purposeful tampering with its company's financials in order to outwardly characterize its revenues as higher than they truly are. So fraud? [HOW DAAAARE YOU!] "Aggressive accounting" .... "has helped fuel a growing economy" [AND EVERYONE DOES IT SO THERE!] (actual quote in quotation marks) In summary, their arguments are. - Aggressive accounting is not fraud (it is) - Activist short selling is the real culprit (This is like blaming bug bounties for bugs in code. Even more confusing is that THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT CITRON'S BUSINESS MODEL IS. WTF!?) - The author has a big head and we don't like him (so therefore made the whole thing up??? Or Something?) - The CEO bought 3 million in stocks as a demonstration of his belief in GE, therefore NOTHING TO SEE HERE, WOW. 3 MILLION. MUCH CONFIDENCE! Citron's arguments wouldn't be out of place in The Onion.
- b_tterc_p 7y ago
  Questionable revenue recognition timing vs fictitious revenues would be an example
valar_m 7y ago
>“They moved their headquarters to Boston last year. My hometown. I don’t appreciate when you’re running a scam in my hometown.” >The arrogance of that statement alone discredits his whole argument. What? I had never heard of Citron before five minutes ago, but that's an embarrassingly terrible analysis. Do people trust the advice of this Citron with their own actual money?
- et2o 7y ago
  That's Citron quoting the authors of the GE report...
  - valar_m 7y ago
    Yes, correct.
  - Semaphor 7y ago
    I assume GP is saying that Citron’s reply to the quote is what makes them look bad. So this: > The arrogance of that statement alone discredits his whole argument. And I must say that struck me the wrong way as well.
snek 7y ago
wowee two pages of very large sans-serif text and "Think about this...". Is it just me or does this look like an 8th grade social studies report?

cairo_x 7y ago

edit: turns out this rebuttal was by Andrew Left, a serial activist short seller himself, who was banned from trading in Hong Kong for falsifying reports on his website. LOL. Citron says the report didn't "pass the smell test". It's quite a lengthy report. One could simply read it and make a point by point rebuttal. But they don't do that at all. They say: > The credibility of Mr. Markopolos has to be questioned immediately when he was asked on CNBC and other media why he chose GE now. To this he responded: “They moved their headquarters to Boston last year. My hometown. I don’t appreciate when you’re running a scam in my hometown.” They then go on to frame this as a giant 'AHAH! Gotcha.' Instead of rebutting the actual report. They then go on to claim that "Aggressive accounting" is not fraud. LOL. I nearly fell out of my fucking chair when I read that one. HOW DARE YOU, SIR. IT'S NOT FRAUD. IT'S AGGRESSIVE ACCOUNTING. wut's aggressive accounting? Aggressive accounting refers to an accounting department's deliberate and purposeful tampering with its company's financials in order to outwardly characterize its revenues as higher than they truly are. So fraud? [HOW DAAAARE YOU!] "Aggressive accounting" .... "has helped fuel a growing economy" [AND EVERYONE DOES IT SO THERE!] (actual quote in quotation marks) In summary, their arguments are. - Aggressive accounting is not fraud (it is) - Activist short selling is the real culprit (This is like blaming bug bounties for bugs in code. Even more confusing is that THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT CITRON'S BUSINESS MODEL IS. WTF!?) - The author has a big head and we don't like him (so therefore made the whole thing up??? Or Something?) - The CEO bought 3 million in stocks as a demonstration of his belief in GE, therefore NOTHING TO SEE HERE, WOW. 3 MILLION. MUCH CONFIDENCE! Citron's arguments wouldn't be out of place in The Onion.

b_tterc_p 7y ago
Questionable revenue recognition timing vs fictitious revenues would be an example

valar_m 7y ago

>“They moved their headquarters to Boston last year. My hometown. I don’t appreciate when you’re running a scam in my hometown.” >The arrogance of that statement alone discredits his whole argument. What? I had never heard of Citron before five minutes ago, but that's an embarrassingly terrible analysis. Do people trust the advice of this Citron with their own actual money?

et2o 7y ago
That's Citron quoting the authors of the GE report...
- valar_m 7y ago
  Yes, correct.
- Semaphor 7y ago
  I assume GP is saying that Citron’s reply to the quote is what makes them look bad. So this: > The arrogance of that statement alone discredits his whole argument. And I must say that struck me the wrong way as well.

snek 7y ago

wowee two pages of very large sans-serif text and "Think about this...". Is it just me or does this look like an 8th grade social studies report?