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I'm actually fascinated to understand more about how these things arise, as well as cases of scientific fraud (like the Schoen research scandal:https://en.wikip

I'm actually fascinated to understand more about how these things arise, as well as cases of scientific fraud (like the Schoen research scandal:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6n_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6n_scandal. I tend to imagine (without data) that many of these situations arise as you suggest - someone gets squeezed, whether for money or research results, and turns to fraud to make ends meet - which becomes a vicious cycle.

chihuahua 6y ago
The page you linked to was a fascinating read, I enjoyed it a lot. I wonder how much this happens - making up fake data in research papers. It seems that it would be easy to get away with in a lot of cases, but unlikely to succeed if your "research" promises a breakthrough in making smaller computer chips, because lots of people will want to replicate that.
randycupertino 6y ago
I recently finished "No One Would Listen" by Harry Markopolos who was a whistleblower who spent YEARS and resigned from his other jobs trying to alert the SEC about Bernie. It was pretty outrageous how the SEC passed the buck around interoffice like a hot potato literally sending the investigation to and from the DC to NYC office and back again. It's a great read although Markopolos comes off as somewhat (deservedly) self-rightous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Would_Listen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Would_Listen As for the "how does it happen" root cause of the fraud, in my perspective it's a bit like trickle truth. They start with one small lie - maybe keeping two sets of books, and get away with it for five years. Hey, that wasn't so bad, let's open a few shell companies for our shell companies and offshore some funds to get out of taxes. Wow, we got away from that, let's do a capital call and double it. Then they start doubling down and because it's easy money they spend it on lavish things, need more income to offset loses. Like you mentioned- turns into a vicious cycle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Would_Listen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Would_Listen

chihuahua 6y ago

The page you linked to was a fascinating read, I enjoyed it a lot. I wonder how much this happens - making up fake data in research papers. It seems that it would be easy to get away with in a lot of cases, but unlikely to succeed if your "research" promises a breakthrough in making smaller computer chips, because lots of people will want to replicate that.

randycupertino 6y ago

I recently finished "No One Would Listen" by Harry Markopolos who was a whistleblower who spent YEARS and resigned from his other jobs trying to alert the SEC about Bernie. It was pretty outrageous how the SEC passed the buck around interoffice like a hot potato literally sending the investigation to and from the DC to NYC office and back again. It's a great read although Markopolos comes off as somewhat (deservedly) self-rightous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Would_Listen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Would_Listen As for the "how does it happen" root cause of the fraud, in my perspective it's a bit like trickle truth. They start with one small lie - maybe keeping two sets of books, and get away with it for five years. Hey, that wasn't so bad, let's open a few shell companies for our shell companies and offshore some funds to get out of taxes. Wow, we got away from that, let's do a capital call and double it. Then they start doubling down and because it's easy money they spend it on lavish things, need more income to offset loses. Like you mentioned- turns into a vicious cycle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Would_Listen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Would_Listen