4 ms·

Are you sure they were audited? I havent seen that in the material released so far, only that an auditor was engaged for due diligence, which was fairly cursory

by pge 6y ago

Are you sure they were audited? I havent seen that in the material released so far, only that an auditor was engaged for due diligence, which was fairly cursory, not anywhere near an actual audit. Typically an audit would involve a direct verification of bank balances from the bank. In addition, an audit would typically directly verify customer contracts and make sure big deposits tied out to contracts and invoices. An audit would also have flagged the lack of segregation of duties as a major risk factor (though that should have been obvious to any board member). As a side note, I also wonder if Rogas was fastidious enough to ensure the GAAP financial statements all tied out with the fraudulent numbers. I guess if an audit couldn't catch this, you have the wrong auditor. This is exactly what audits are for.

deleted 6y ago
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solumos 6y ago
You're correct, my understanding of "full audit" vs "due diligence" was off.
billyhoffman 6y ago
Read the DOJ filing, linked in a comment below. The auditor physically sent a person on site whose job was to watch the financial people log into the banks web interface, verify the balance, and print bank statements for the last 12 months, all in front of the auditor. The passage doesn’t make it clear why the auditor didn’t watch the ceo pull the records for the accounts receivables account Update: filing Is here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1317641/download https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1317641... Relevant Passage: “As part of its due diligence process, the Audit Firm had an employee (the “Auditor”) conduct a physical site visit at NS8’s offices in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Auditor was directed by a more senior Audit Firm employee to have someone from NS8 log in to the online portal for each NS8 bank account, display the current account balance, and download monthly bank statements for fiscal year 2019.” “Based on my interview with a member of the NS8 finance department (“Finance Employee-1”), I have learned, among other things, that on or about March 11, 2020, Finance Employee-1 and ROGAS met with the Auditor in ROGAS’s office. The purpose of that meeting was for ROGAS and Finance Employee-1 each to log into the online portals for the bank accounts to which they had access (for ROGAS, the Revenue Bank Account) and download monthly account statements for the Auditor. During that meeting, Finance Employee- 1 logged into the online portal for the Expense Bank Account -- to which Finance Employee-1 had access -- and downloaded monthly account statements. Finance Employee-1 understood that ROGAS was doing the same for the Revenue Bank Account during the meeting”

by pge 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

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solumos 6y ago

You're correct, my understanding of "full audit" vs "due diligence" was off.

billyhoffman 6y ago

Read the DOJ filing, linked in a comment below. The auditor physically sent a person on site whose job was to watch the financial people log into the banks web interface, verify the balance, and print bank statements for the last 12 months, all in front of the auditor. The passage doesn’t make it clear why the auditor didn’t watch the ceo pull the records for the accounts receivables account Update: filing Is here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1317641/download https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1317641... Relevant Passage: “As part of its due diligence process, the Audit Firm had an employee (the “Auditor”) conduct a physical site visit at NS8’s offices in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Auditor was directed by a more senior Audit Firm employee to have someone from NS8 log in to the online portal for each NS8 bank account, display the current account balance, and download monthly bank statements for fiscal year 2019.” “Based on my interview with a member of the NS8 finance department (“Finance Employee-1”), I have learned, among other things, that on or about March 11, 2020, Finance Employee-1 and ROGAS met with the Auditor in ROGAS’s office. The purpose of that meeting was for ROGAS and Finance Employee-1 each to log into the online portals for the bank accounts to which they had access (for ROGAS, the Revenue Bank Account) and download monthly account statements for the Auditor. During that meeting, Finance Employee- 1 logged into the online portal for the Expense Bank Account -- to which Finance Employee-1 had access -- and downloaded monthly account statements. Finance Employee-1 understood that ROGAS was doing the same for the Revenue Bank Account during the meeting”