#fraud management software

[rachvictor05]

Understanding Healthcare Fraud Detection Software Solutions

Healthcare fraud detection software solutions are specialized tools designed to identify and prevent fraudulent activities within the healthcare system. These solutions use advanced algorithms and data analytics to detect anomalies, patterns, and behaviors indicative of fraud. By analyzing vast amounts of data from insurance claims, patient records, and billing processes, the software can flag suspicious activities that may indicate fraudulent behavior.

Key features of these solutions often include real-time monitoring, automated alerts, and sophisticated pattern recognition. They help healthcare providers, insurers, and regulatory bodies to detect fraudulent claims, billing irregularities, and other deceptive practices efficiently. By integrating with existing healthcare IT systems, these tools offer a comprehensive approach to managing and mitigating fraud risks.

The implementation of fraud detection solutions enhances the integrity of healthcare services, ensuring that resources are allocated appropriately and reducing financial losses. Additionally, it supports compliance with regulatory standards and protects patient data from misuse. Overall, these solutions are crucial in maintaining trust and accountability within the healthcare industry, ultimately leading to more efficient and transparent operations.

[marketplace-payouts]

Guide on How to Use PayPal

PayPal is one of the world's most established and trusted online payment systems. It's been around since 1998 and is a go-to platform for businesses and individuals needing to send money. Everyday shoppers can use PayPal to pay for purchases on marketplace sites, e-commerce stores, etc. Meanwhile, companies can employ a PayPal integration API to pay employees, freelancers, international gig workers and more.

Here's how to get started with PayPal.

Creating Your Account

Creating your account is the first step to taking advantage of everything PayPal offers. This process is simple, and the PayPal website walks you through the information you need to provide.

Once you have your account, you can start sending or receiving money. The only information you need is the email address associated with your account and your PayPal password. If you're working with a company that uses a PayPal integration API, you only need to provide your email address to start receiving payments.

When you log into your account, you can see your balance.

That's also where you add a debit card, bank account or credit card to your PayPal digital wallet. These linked accounts will cover purchase amounts over your balance. You can also use them to withdraw funds from your PayPal accounts or add more.

Using PayPal to Make Purchases

One of the biggest benefits of having a PayPal account is that you don't need to provide sensitive financial information when you shop with retailers. You'll see a dedicated button during checkout when an online store or marketplace platform accepts PayPal.

Click on that button, and you'll connect to PayPal. Log in with your email address and password, and you're good to go. That's it! PayPal will use your available balance and/or linked accounts to cover the costs. Your information stays private, and you get added safety with PayPal's Buyer Protection Program.

The beauty of PayPal is that it's available on many devices. Download the PayPal app, and you can shop from your phone. No need to take out your card or worry about who you're giving your information to!

Read a similar article about digital wallet system here at this page.

[gpaymentau]

PaymentFraud Prevention Tools | GPayments

[alwajeeztech]

ZATCA VAT & Tax Return System in ALZERP Cloud ERP Software

The ALZERP Cloud ERP Software offers a comprehensive tax return system designed to facilitate the calculation, moderation, and finalization of VAT and tax returns. This system ensures businesses comply with the Saudi Arabian tax regulations set by the Zakat, Tax, and Customs Authority (ZATCA). By automating and streamlining the tax return process, ALZERP helps businesses achieve accuracy and…

[daltonvillegas]

Digital Evidence Analysis in Private Investigation: Leveraging Corporate Security Video Software

In the realm of private investigation and corporate security, the role of digital evidence analysis has become paramount. With the proliferation of video surveillance tools and software, investigators now have access to an abundance of data that can be pivotal in solving cases and ensuring the safety of businesses. This article delves into the significance of digital evidence analysis, the evolution of private investigator video tools, and the integration of corporate security video software in modern investigations.

The Importance of Digital Evidence Analysis

Digital evidence analysis involves the collection, preservation, examination, and presentation of digital evidence in legal proceedings. In the context of private investigation and corporate security, this process has revolutionized the way cases are handled. Video footage captured by surveillance cameras serves as a crucial source of evidence, offering insights into incidents, identifying suspects, and corroborating witness testimonies. However, the sheer volume of data generated by these systems necessitates advanced analytical tools and methodologies to extract meaningful information efficiently.

Evolution of Private Investigator Video Tools

Private investigators rely heavily on video tools to gather evidence and conduct surveillance discreetly. Over the years, these tools have undergone significant advancements to meet the evolving demands of the profession. From covert cameras and body-worn recording devices to drones equipped with high-definition cameras, investigators now have access to a wide array of sophisticated equipment. These tools not only enhance the quality and scope of surveillance operations but also enable investigators to adapt to diverse environments and scenarios effectively.

Corporate Security Video Software

In the realm of corporate security, video software plays a vital role in safeguarding assets, preventing crime, and maintaining a secure environment for employees and stakeholders. Modern corporate security systems utilize advanced video analytics algorithms to monitor premises in real-time, detect suspicious activities, and generate actionable insights. Moreover, integration with other security technologies such as access control systems and alarm systems enhances overall situational awareness and response capabilities.

Leveraging Technology for Enhanced Investigations

The convergence of digital evidence analysis, private investigator video tools, and corporate security video software presents a paradigm shift in the way investigations are conducted. By leveraging these technologies synergistically, investigators can streamline the process of gathering, analyzing, and presenting evidence. Real-time monitoring capabilities enable proactive intervention, while forensic analysis tools facilitate the reconstruction of events and identification of perpetrators.

Conclusion

In conclusion, digital evidence analysis is at the forefront of modern private investigation and corporate security efforts. The integration of private investigator video tools and corporate security video software has empowered investigators to conduct more thorough, efficient, and effective investigations. By harnessing the power of technology, stakeholders can mitigate risks, protect assets, and uphold the principles of justice and security in an ever-changing landscape. As we continue to embrace innovation, the role of digital evidence analysis will remain indispensable in shaping the future of investigative practices.

[jcmarchi]

5 Tech Companies That Are Shaping the Way We Travel - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/5-tech-companies-that-are-shaping-the-way-we-travel-technology-org/

5 Tech Companies That Are Shaping the Way We Travel - Technology Org

Today, everyone recognizes that travel and technology are an ideal match. This relationship also makes a vital contribution to how we make hotel and flight reservations. It is so widespread that based on a Google Travel Study, over 74% of travelers make their trips online. This is why we are seeing an increase in the number of travel tech companies.

A mountain backpacker – illustrative photo. Image credit: Philipp Kämmerer via Unsplash, free license

These travel tech companies have made planning for trips manageable and convenient for everyone. Modern-day travelers are also playing a key role in popularizing this trend. Tech travel companies like cozycozy are helping tourists plan their trips with just a few clicks. Whether you are looking for sustainable travel experiences or luxury vacations, these tech companies can satisfy your wanderlust. 

Lanes and Planes    

Lanes and Planes is an innovative platform that simplifies corporate travel management. The platform allows companies to manage their employees’ travel expenses via a centralized system. If your organization hasn’t yet implemented expense management software, you can always opt for Lanes and Planes.

Moreover, it is one of the first companies to offer a travel and expense management platform that is completely digital. You can now effectively address expense management fraud with Lanes and Planes. The company also has a mobile application your employees can use during their corporate trips. 

Cozycozy

If you want to make your next trip delightful and memorable, cozycozy has got you covered. It is the most prominent hotel search and vacation rental comparison portal on the internet. Moreover, the company claims that it is the only search portal where you can compare a full range of accommodations.

We all know that the overall quality of the accommodation can make or break our travel experience. Cozycozy fully understands this pain point and aims to simplify your accommodation requirements when you travel worldwide. By comparing accommodation facilities on the company’s platform, you can find a place that best meets your needs.

When you plan a trip with multiple stops, there are higher chances of ending up with various tabs depicting different services. Cozycozy wants to simplify this process by aggregating numerous services in a single interface. So, on the company’s portal, you can find Airbnb listings, hostels, campsites, etc.

Note that the company doesn’t directly work with hotels. Moreover, it also doesn’t handle reservations directly. If you want to book an Airbnb, you will be redirected to the respective website. The platform always prioritizes the needs of its users and has more than 20 million active listings.

Duffel

Duffel is a relatively new travel tech startup but has become popular among travelers. It has developed a flight booking portal that allows travel agencies to book flights directly with airlines. Moreover, Duffel has APIs that developers can utilize to integrate flight booking into the travel agency’s app.

So, if you are in the travel business, you’ll benefit from the APIs of Duffel. These feature-rich APIs can help you search, book, and sell flight tickets in a matter of few minutes. The company states that it wants to democratize the travel industry and make it accessible to all.

Limehome

Limehome has been able to disrupt the conventional concept of hotels by offering fully furnished apartments to travelers. It is a Munich-based travel tech company that allows travelers to access short-term rental apartments. The company utilizes its proprietary operating portal to automate hotel processes.

The company is also responsible for streamlining pricing, booking, check-in, and other mundane processes to offer comfortable accommodations. It aims to target business and leisure travelers by converting commercial spaces into apartment hotels and operating them through its tech platform.

Indie Campers   

Indie Campers is a campervan rental agency that will let you book RVs for your road trip. It has a vast marketplace of more than 6000 RVs and campervans. So, if you are a big fan of making memories while on the go, Indie Campers is your best bet.

The process of renting a campervan from the platform is easy and straightforward. So, even if you are a first-time user, you won’t find any difficulty booking your RV from the company’s platform. 

So, these are the five tech companies that are simplifying the way we travel. All these companies have showcased a commitment to putting their customers at the center of their offerings. In the future, it is pretty evident that technology will play a pivotal role in how we explore different places.

[rohroy]

ATMs & CRMs – Unveiling Their Benefits in India’s Evolving Payment Landscape | AGS India

Both ATMs and CRMs facilitate various banking transactions, CRMs offer the additional functionality of cash recycling, making them more advanced and sophisticated machines.

[xintecglobal]

Fraud Case Management Software - Xintec

Introducing Xintec's Fraud Case Management Software - the ultimate solution for effortlessly managing and combating fraud in Telecom Industry. Our cutting-edge software harnesses the power of advanced AI technology to detect, analyze, and prevent fraudulent activities in real-time. With Xintec, you'll have the confidence to protect your business from any financial threats while streamlining your operations. Don't let fraud take control - trust Xintec's Fraud Case Management Software for unrivaled security and peace of mind.

[universalinfo]

5 Types of Payment Fraud Every Business Owner Should Recognize

In today’s fast-paced digital world, businesses are thriving, customers are shopping online more than ever, and transactions are happening in the blink of an eye. While this rapid growth offers exciting opportunities, it also presents unique challenges. One such challenge that stands tall is payment fraud. And if you’re a business owner, understanding the ins and outs of payment fraud is essential for your enterprise’s security and trustworthiness. By mastering payment fraud management, you’ll not only protect your profits but also maintain your customers’ confidence.

However, before you can master payment fraud management, you need to know what you’re up against. Let’s dive into the five types of payment fraud you should have on your radar.

1. Credit Card Fraud

This is perhaps the most well-known type of fraud. It occurs when someone unauthorized uses another person’s credit card information for their own gain. Credit card fraud has various forms: it can be due to a lost or stolen card, carding attacks where multiple numbers are tested on websites, or skimming where devices are used to capture card details from unsuspecting victims. It’s a concern that affects both the cardholder and the business where the fraudulent transaction took place.

As part of your payment fraud management strategy, it’s imperative to have robust measures in place to verify the authenticity of every transaction. Real-time verification can detect inconsistencies in purchasing patterns, alerting both the customer and the merchant. Multi-factor authentication ensures that only the rightful owner can complete the transaction, adding an extra layer of security. And, of course, CVV checks, a simple yet effective solution, ensure that the person making the purchase physically has the card in their possession. By continuously updating and refining these protective measures, you can ensure that your business remains a challenging target for fraudsters.

Transitioning into the second type, we’re addressing a crime that capitalizes on personal data and has grown significantly, especially with the advancement of technology.

2. Identity Theft

Identity theft is not just about stealing someone’s name. It involves acquiring key pieces of someone’s personal information, such as Social Security numbers, bank account details, or addresses. With these, the fraudster can impersonate the victim, leading to multiple detrimental outcomes. They might use this stolen identity to make unauthorized transactions, open new accounts in the victim’s name, or even secure loans, leaving the person in financial turmoil.

Identity theft is invasive and violates the personal space of the victim. It’s not just a financial concern; it has emotional ramifications as well. For businesses, it poses a significant risk. If a fraudster uses stolen details to purchase from your platform, not only do you stand to face chargebacks, but your reputation might also take a hit. Fore more details on bill payment software visit here.

Strengthening your payment fraud management against identity theft should be a top priority. Implement stringent data protection measures, invest in encryption technologies, and continuously educate your customers about safe online practices. Furthermore, by verifying customer details and maintaining a proactive stance towards suspicious account activity, you can mitigate potential risks and protect both your business and your customers.

3. Account Takeover

Within the fraud spectrum, victims find account takeovers especially distressing. Armed with unauthorized access, fraudsters quickly carry out illegitimate transactions, leaving the rightful account holder baffled and frequently facing financial repercussions. Often, these bad actors gain this access by exploiting stolen login details, which they might acquire via methods like phishing attacks, keyloggers, or breaches on other platforms.

However, there’s a glimmer of hope. Through proactive payment fraud management, businesses have the tools to fight against account takeovers. The first step involves consistent account monitoring. Observing red flags such as abrupt shifts in buying habits or login tries from strange locations can reveal suspicious activities. Adding to this, businesses can introduce real-time alert systems, immediately informing users about potential breaches, and urging them to act swiftly. Another strong line of defense is multi-factor authentication. This requires users to confirm their identity using an additional verification step, further shielding them from unauthorized intrusions.

Switching gears a bit, we delve into a deception that hinges on the trust businesses place in their customers.

4. Refund Fraud

Trust is an invaluable component of any successful business-consumer relationship. Refund policies exemplify this trust, assuring customers that their concerns are valid and will be addressed. However, some individuals manipulate this trust through refund fraud. After making a legitimate purchase, they deceitfully claim a refund, putting forth reasons like receiving damaged goods or not getting the items at all. Such false claims not only lead to financial losses but also strain the genuine trust between businesses and their customers.

Effective payment fraud management involves the discernment to distinguish between legitimate refund requests and potential fraudulent ones. Implementing systematic checks, such as examining the frequency of refunds from a particular account or cross-referencing reasons given for multiple refunds, can provide insights. Additionally, maintaining a transparent communication channel with customers can help clarify any ambiguities, ensuring that genuine customers feel valued while deterring fraudsters.

Shifting our focus now, we turn our attention to a cunning fraud type linked to the very inception of an account.

5. New Account Fraud

The excitement of welcoming a new customer is an unparalleled feeling for businesses. Behind some new account setups, a deception called new account fraud lurks. In this scheme, fraudsters create a new account using stolen or fabricated information. Once they activate this account, they quickly make large purchases. When the bills come due, the unsuspecting individual, from whom the information was stolen, faces unexpected charges.

Being vigilant during the initial stages of account creation is the cornerstone of payment fraud management against this type. It’s not about being skeptical but about being thorough. Implementing rigorous validation protocols, such as sending confirmation emails or text messages, can ensure the legitimacy of the new account holder. Regularly updating and cross-checking databases with reported stolen information can also be a proactive measure against this fraud.

Conclusion

Payment fraud, in its many forms, is a pressing concern for businesses worldwide. But by understanding these common types, and actively implementing a robust payment fraud management system, business owners can take proactive steps to safeguard their operations.

It’s not just about guarding your revenue; it’s about upholding the trust that customers place in your brand. Every secure transaction reinforces that trust, while every fraudulent activity erodes it.

As you continue to grow and expand your business, always keep payment fraud management at the forefront of your strategies. After all, a business that can assure its customers of secure transactions is one that’s bound to thrive in today’s digital age.

Remember, the key lies not in fearing the challenges but in being prepared for them. Strengthen your defenses, keep updated with the latest fraud trends, and continuously refine your payment fraud management techniques. Stay vigilant, stay secure!

Read More:

[velocityfss]

Fraud Detection Tool - Velocity Fincrime Suite

Our fraud detection tool is a cutting-edge solution designed to safeguard your business against financial losses and reputational damage. Leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms and real-time data analysis, it tirelessly monitors transactions, identifying suspicious activities and patterns. Whether it's fraudulent credit card transactions, identity theft, or insider threats, our tool provides rapid alerts, allowing you to take immediate action.

With a user-friendly interface and seamless integration into your existing systems, it offers a comprehensive view of potential risks. Customizable thresholds and rules empower you to tailor detection to your specific needs. Stay one step ahead of fraudsters and protect your assets with our powerful fraud detection tool.

[vaspider]

Oh, I finally found out what caused the phone call where a person from a radiology office told me that my insurance "wanted me to change my gender" because it was the wrong gender for me to be getting a uterine ultrasound.

Medicaid knows what the proper gender for me is (it's X. That's what's on my license) and doesn't want me to change it.

The actual problem is that the radiologist's office uses older medical software, and that electronic submission software doesn't have a setting for non-binary people. (In Oregon??? but apparently not.) So the error that it gave in the system is 'you have the wrong gender for this kind of procedure,' even though the actual error is 'our software literally cannot handle your legal information because it doesn't match the gender options in your state.'

I am really good at fighting with insurance companies. It's a fucking shitty thing to have to be good at, but after the past ten years of my life? I'm really good at fighting medical systems. I'm really good at advocating for myself. I'm really good at knowing my rights and knowing when someone is blowing smoke up my ass.

On top of that, I have a case manager who helped me untangle this.

But if I didn't have that? I'd have ended up either paying a bill that I shouldn't have had to pay, or just letting it go to collections and fuck up my credit.

And I shouldn't have to do this. I really shouldn't. I shouldn't have to spend hours patiently saying, "Asking me to change my information to something that is legally false in order to have a bill paid by insurance is the literal definition of insurance fraud, and I will not do it. How else can we get this fixed, in a way that doesn't require me to commit a crime or you to advise me to commit a crime?"

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The long sleep of capitalism’s watchdogs

There are only five more days left in my Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

One of the weirdest aspect of end-stage capitalism is the collapse of auditing, the lynchpin of investing. Auditors – independent professionals who sign off on a company's finances – are the only way that investors can be sure they're not handing their money over to failing businesses run by crooks.

It's just not feasible for investors to talk to supply-chain partners and retailers and verify that a company's orders and costs are real. Investors can't walk into a company's bank and demand to see their account histories. Auditors – who are paid by companies, but work for themselves – are how investors avoid shoveling money into Ponzi-pits.

Attentive readers will have noticed that there is an intrinsic tension in an arrangement where someone is paid by a company to certify its honesty. The company gets to decide who its auditors are, and those auditors are dependent on the company for future business. To manage this conflict of interest, auditors swear fealty to a professional code of ethics, and are themselves overseen by professional boards with the power to issue fines and ban cheaters.

Enter monopolization. Over the past 40 years, the US government conducted a failed experiment in allowing companies to form monopolies on the theory that these would be "efficient." From Boeing to Facebook, Cigna to InBev, Warner to Microsoft, it has been a catastrophe. The American corporate landscape is dominated by vast, crumbling, ghastly companies whose bad products and worse corporate conduct are locked in a race to see who can attain the most depraved enshittification quickest.

The accounting profession is no exception. A decades-long incestuous orgy of mergers and acquisitions yielded up an accounting sector dominated by just four firms: EY, KPMG, PWC and Deloitte (the last holdout from the alphabetsoupification of corporate identity). Virtually every major company relies on one of these companies for auditing, but that's only a small part of corporate America's relationship with these tottering behemoths. The real action comes from "consulting."

Each of the Big Four accounting firms is also a corporate consultancy. Some of those consulting services are the normal work of corporate consultants – cookie cutter advice to fire workers and reduce product quality, as well as supplying dangerously defecting enterprise software. But you can get that from the overpaid enablers at McKinsey or BCG. The advantage of contracting with a Big Four accounting firm for consulting is that they can help you commit finance fraud.

Remember: if you're an executive greenlighting fraud, you mostly just want to be sure it's not discovered until after you've pocketed your bonus and moved on. After all, the pro-monopoly experiment was also an experiment in tolerating corporate crime. Executives who cheat their investors, workers and suppliers typically generate fines for their companies, while escaping any personal liability.

By buying your cheating advice from the same company that is paid to certify that you're not cheating, you greatly improve your chances of avoiding detection until you've blown town.

Which brings me to the idea of the "bezzle." This is John Kenneth Galbraith's term for "the weeks, months, or years that elapse between the commission of the crime and its discovery." This is the period in which both the criminal and the victim feel like they're better off. The crook has the victim's money, and the victim doesn't know it. The Bezzle is that interval when you're still assuming that FTX isn't lying to you about the crazy returns they're generating for your crypto. It's the period between you getting the shrinkwrapped box with a 90% discounted PS5 in it from a guy in an alley, and getting home and discovering that it's full of bricks and styrofoam.

Big Accounting is a factory for producing bezzles at scale. The game is rigged, and they are the riggers. When banks fail and need a public bailout, chances are those banks were recently certified as healthy by one of the Big Four, whose audited bank financials failed 800 re-audits between 2009-17:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/28/cyberwar-tactics/#aligned-incentives

The Big Four dispute this, of course. They claim to be models of probity, adhering to the strictest possible ethical standards. This would be a lot easier to believe if KPMG hadn't been caught bribing its regulators to help its staff cheat on ethics exams:

https://www.nysscpa.org/news/publications/the-trusted-professional/article/sec-probe-finds-kpmg-auditors-cheating-on-training-exams-061819

Likewise, it would be easier to believe if their consulting arms didn't keep getting caught advising their clients on how to cheat their auditing arms:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/09/dingo-babysitter/#maybe-the-dingos-ate-your-nan

Big Accounting is a very weird phenomenon, even by the standards of End-Stage Capitalism. It's an organized system of millionaire-on-billionaire violence, a rare instance of the very richest people getting scammed the hardest:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/04/aaronsw/#crooked-ref

The collapse of accounting is such an ominous and fractally weird phenomenon, it inspired me to write a series of hard-boiled forensic accountancy novels about a two-fisted auditor named Martin Hench, starting with last year's Red Team Blues (out in paperback next week!):

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865854/redteamblues

The sequel to Red Team Blues is called (what else?) The Bezzle, and part of its ice-cold revenge plot involves a disillusioned EY auditor who can't bear to be part of the scam any longer:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-bezzle-a-martin-hench-audiobook-amazon-wont-sell

The Hench stories span a 40-year period, and are a chronicle of decades of corporate decay. Accountancy is the perfect lens for understanding our modern fraud economy. After all, it was crooked accountants who gave us the S&L crisis:

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10130&context=etd

Crooked auditors were at the center of the Great Financial Crisis, too:

https://francinemckenna.com/2009/12/07/they-werent-there-auditors-and-the-financial-crisis/

And of course, crooked auditors were behind the Enron fraud, a rare instance in which a fraud triggered a serious attempt to prevent future crimes, including the destruction of accounting giant Arthur Andersen. After Enron, Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), which created a new oversight board called the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

The PCAOB is a watchdog for watchdogs, charged with auditing the auditors and punishing the incompetent and corrupt among them. Writing for The American Prospect and the Revolving Door Project, Timi Iwayemi describes the long-running failure of the PCAOB to do its job:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-01-26-corporate-self-oversight/

For example: from 2003-2019, the PCAOB undertook only 18 enforcement cases – even though the PCAOB also detected more than 800 "seriously defective audits" by the Big Four. And those 18 cases were purely ornamental: the PCAOB issued a mere $6.5m in fines for all 18, even though they could have fined the accounting companies $1.6 billion:

https://www.pogo.org/investigations/how-an-agency-youve-never-heard-of-is-leaving-the-economy-at-risk

Few people are better on this subject than the investigative journalist Francine McKenna, who has just co-authored a major paper on the PCAOB:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4227295

The paper uses a new data set – documents disclosed in a 2019 criminal trial – to identify the structural forces that cause the PCAOB to be such a weak watchdog whose employees didn't merely fail to do their jobs, but actually criminally abetted the misdeeds of the companies they were supposed to be keeping honest.

They put the blame – indirectly – on the SEC. The PCAOB has three missions: protecting investors, keeping markets running smoothly, and ensuring that businesses can raise capital. These missions come into conflict. For example, declaring one of the Big Four auditors ineligible would throw markets into chaos, removing a quarter of the auditing capacity that all public firms rely on. The Big Four are the auditors for 99.7% of the S&P 500, and certify the books for the majority of all listed companies:

https://blog.auditanalytics.com/audit-fee-trends-of-sp-500/

For the first two decades of the PCAOB's existence, the SEC insisted that conflicts be resolved in ways that let the auditing firms commit fraud, because the alternative would be bad for the market.

So: rather than cultivating an adversarial relationship to the Big Four, the PCAOB effectively merged with them. Two of its board seats are reserved for accountants, and those two seats have been occupied by Big Four veterans almost without exception:

https://www.pogo.org/investigations/captured-financial-regulator-at-risk

It was no better on the SEC side. The Office of the Chief Accountant is the SEC's overseer for the PCAOB, and it, too, has operated with a revolving door between the Big Four and their watchdog (indeed, the Chief Accountant is the watchdog for the watchdog for the watchdogs!). Meanwhile, staffers from the Office of the Chief Accountant routinely rotated out of government service and into the Big Four.

This corrupt arrangement reached a crescendo in 2019, with the appointment of William Duhnke – formerly of Senator Richard Shelby's [R-AL] staff – took over as Chief Accountant. Under Duhnke's leadership, the already-toothless watchdog was first neutered, then euthanized. Duhnke fired all four heads of the PCAOB's main division and then left their seats vacant for 18 months. He slashed the agency's budget, "weakened inspection requirements and auditor independence policies, and disregarded obligations to hold Board meetings and publicize its agenda."

All that ended in 2021, when SEC chair Gary Gensler fired Duhnke and replaced him with Erica Williams, at the insistence of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Within a year, Williams had issued 42 enforcement actions, the largest number since 2017, levying over $11m in sanctions:

https://www.dlapiper.com/en/insights/publications/2023/01/pcaob-sets-aggressive-agenda-for-2023-what-to-expect-as-agency-enforcement-expands

She was just getting warmed up: last year, PCAOB collected $20m in fines, with five cases seeing fines in excess of $2m each, a record:

https://www.dlapiper.com/en/insights/publications/2024/01/pcaobs-enforcement-and-standard-setting-rev-up-what-to-expect-in-2024

Williams isn't shy about condemning the Big Four, publicly sounding the alarm that 40% of the 2022 audits the PCAOB reviewed were deficient, up from 34% in 2021 and 29% in 2020:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-audit-the-auditors-and-we-found-trouble-accountability-capital-markets-c5587f05

Under Williams, the PCAOB has enacted new, muscular rules on lead auditors' duties, and they're now consulting on a rule that will make audit inspections much faster, shortening the documentation period from 45 days to 14:

https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/pcaob-rulemaking-could-lead-to-more-timely-issuance-of-audit-inspection-reports/

Williams is no fire-breathing leftist. She's an alum of the SEC and a BigLaw firm, creating modest, obvious technical improvements to a key system that capitalism requires for its orderly functioning. Moreover, she is competent, able to craft regulations that are effective and enforceable. This has been a motif within the Biden administration:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

But though these improvements are decidedly moderate, they are grounded in a truly radical break from business-as-usual in the age of monopoly auditors. It's a transition from self-regulation to regulation. As @40_Years on Twitter so aptly put it: "Self regulation is to regulation as self-importance is to importance":

https://twitter.com/40_Years/status/1750025605465178260

Berliners: Otherland has added a second date (Jan 28 - THIS SUNDAY!) for my book-talk after the first one sold out - book now!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/26/noclar-war/#millionaire-on-billionaire-violence

Back the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle here!

Image: Sam Valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/

Disco Dan (modified)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/danhogbenspics/8318883471/

CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jay Kuo at The Big Picture:

In 2020, Trump launched his Big Lie about a stolen U.S. election. Through a conspiracy among Democrats, foreign countries, and nefarious, shadowy bad actors including innocent voting machine and voting software companies, so the theory went, Joe Biden had managed to switch millions of votes and win his election illegally, making him an illegitimate president. It was such an audacious, almost laughable lie that historians and political scientists dubbed it Trump’s “Big Lie”—one so outrageous and so stunning in its implications that it somehow has to be true, at least in the minds of his followers. Now, in 2024, Trump is back at it again. On top of his original Big Lie, Trump is now pushing a 2024 version for the upcoming election: that illegal immigrants will be voting in numbers by the millions, rendering any result other than a Trump victory yet another fraud upon the American people.

Undocumented migrants aren’t allowed to vote in this country, and there are already laws on the books covering that. And there have been very few documented cases of non-citizens voting, certainly not enough to change the outcome of a national election. Nevertheless, recently House Speaker Mike Johnson made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to stand beside Donald Trump and proclaim that they were united in their resolve to pass a new law to prevent non-citizens from voting, never mind that there’s already such a law on the books and that such fraud rarely ever happens. Their actions are of course performative, meant to plant dangerous seeds that could grow into even more dangerous lies. In today’s piece, I’ll explore this newest attack and how Trump is hoping to spin it into The Big Lie 2024 style.

Existing law already outlaws non-citizen voting

Last week, when Speaker Mike Johnson traveled to Mar-a-Lago to seek Trump’s support, it felt eerily familiar. It’s become a rite of passage for GOP House Speakers to make the journey to bend the knee to Trump. We all remember the photo of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy standing supportively by Trump just months after the deadly attack on the Capitol that Trump helped incite. Like McCarthy, Johnson’s speakership hangs by a thread these days, with the far right ready to decapitate yet another GOP leader for having failed to toe the line, this time for Russia by denying critical aid to Ukraine. Trump’s support of Johnson came with a price, of course, because Trump is always transactional in his dealings. In this case, it was a pledge by Johnson to support a bill to clamp down on the alleged crisis in non-citizen voting. [...]

What the right claims about “illegal” immigrant voting

The idea that millions of undocumented migrants will cast ballots in 2024 and help steal the election for Biden is objectively far-fetched. But it taps into far deeper fears of brown- and black-skinned people taking over America in something broadly known as the Great Replacement Theory. The Great Replacement Theory is a racist ideology that falsely warns that migrants who don’t speak our language and don’t share our values are deliberately being let into the U.S. so that Jews and other Democrats can turn them into millions of future voters. This process will allegedly displace “white” Americans politically and economically. Right-wing amplifiers of this include Tucker Carlson (formerly of Fox News) and Elon Musk, owner of the X platform. This is by no means a recent theory. Waves of immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe sparked the same unfounded fears and conspiracies in the 19th and 20th centuries with respect to the “replacement” of more established “Northern European” Americans. But recent conspiracies around migrants have shortened the timeline of the Great Replacement and are warning that the hordes of desperate asylum seekers crossing into America now will be deployed this November to unlawfully tip the election to Biden. 

[...]

It’s crucial to call this out and push back

When Trump began attacking mail-in voting in 2020, claiming falsely and without evidence that mailed ballots were vulnerable, easily tampered with, and unreliable, it should have clued us in that he would reject the results of the 2020 election if they were unfavorable to him. We also should have known that Trump would exploit the “red mirage” created when Election Day ballots, which would favor the GOP, were counted before the mailed ballots, which would favor the Democrats. Trump would go on to demand that the vote counting stop while he was still ahead, even though millions of mailed ballots remained to be counted. We now already know that a main attack by Trump and the MAGA GOP will be upon the ballot counts, particularly in battleground states with high numbers of migrants whom he will claim voted illegally by the millions. This necessitates preemptive action.

Donald Trump, GOP politicians, and right-wing media commentators are pushing the lie that noncitizen voters will get Joe Biden re-elected, never mind the fact that noncitizens aren’t allowed to vote in federal elections. This is part of the right-wing’s white nationalist “great replacement” theory shtick.

See Also:

MMFA: Right-wing media figures are citing a Spanish-language flyer of dubious origin as evidence that Democrats are importing new voters to “rig” elections

[gpaymentau]

Ecommerce Fraud Prevention for Online Shopping | GPayments

[justforbooks]

Mike Lynch

British tech entrepreneur who sold his Autonomy software group to Hewlett-Packard and was later cleared after a long-running US fraud case

Mike Lynch, who has died aged 59 in the wreck of his yacht, was sometimes described as “Britain’s Bill Gates”. It was a huge exaggeration, but Lynch could claim two parallels with Gates: he developed world-leading technology (in his case in machine learning or AI) and, unlike so many UK scientists, he learned how to turn it into commercial success.

Such was this success that his company, Autonomy, was valued at $11bn when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, but the fall-out from the sale would come to overshadow his technological achievements, and lead to a national debate about the circumstances in which UK citizens may be extradited to the US.

Lynch founded Autonomy with two partners in 1996. Its software enabled a computer to search huge quantities of diverse information, including phone calls, emails and videos, and recognise words. He told the Independent in 1999: “The way our technology works is to look at words and understand the relationships because it has seen a lot of content before. When it sees the word ‘star’ in the context of film, it knows it has nothing to do with the word moon. Because it works from text, it can deal with slang and with different languages.”

Autonomy became a leading company in Cambridge’s Silicon Fen cluster and established a base in San Francisco. “We knew we had to be successful in America. It was a question of ‘Go West young man, go to San Francisco and be ignored.’ They found it hard to believe that anyone from England could have anything powerful.” Lynch found what he called the “cold-hearted schmooze” to secure funding tough.

But Autonomy’s software, enabling computers to identify and match themes and ideas, and sort mammoth amounts of data, was licensed to more than 500 customers, including the US State Department and the BBC. It was listed on Nasdaq in 1998 and on the FTSE 100 in November 2000, although its value of £5.1bn would be halved within a few months in the collapse of the technology boom and accusations of over-promotion. In 2005 it bought a major US rival, Verity, for $500m.

Lynch’s profile rose with it. In 2006 he was appointed OBE for services to enterprise and the following year joined the board of the BBC. In 2011 he became a member of the government’s Council for Science and Technology, and was named the most influential person in UK IT by Computer Weekly. In 2014 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

Though quietly spoken, he had a reputation for toughness, coloured by a liking for James Bond, which led to Autonomy conference rooms being named after Bond villains, and a tank of piranha fish in reception. (Lynch claimed it belonged to one of his business partners.) Challenged about a company culture where people were “a little fanatical”, he replied: “This is not the place for you if you want to work 9 to 5 and don’t love your work.”

Born in Ilford, east London, to Michael, a firefighter, and Dolores, a nurse, and brought up in Chelmsford, Lynch won a scholarship to the independent Bancroft’s school in Woodford Green, before taking a natural sciences degree at Cambridge, where his PhD in artificial neural networks, a form of machine learning, has been widely studied since.

A saxophone player and jazz lover, he set up his first business, Lynett Systems, while still a student, to produce electronic equipment for the music industry. Later he would attribute some loss of hearing to adjusting synthesisers for bands. He quoted his own experience to highlight the difficulties of finding funding for startup businesses in Britain. He finally negotiated a £2,000 loan from one of the managers of Genesis in a Soho bar.

Lynch’s next venture came out of his research. In 1991 he founded Cambridge Neurodynamics, specialising in computer-based fingerprint recognition. Then he established Autonomy.

The pinnacle of his success appeared to come in October 2011 when Autonomy was purchased by Hewlett-Packard for $11bn and Lynch made an estimated $800m. Shortly afterwards he established a new company, Invoke Capital, for investment in tech companies, and he and his wife, Angela Bacares, whom he had married in 2001, invested about £200m in Darktrace, a cybersecurity company.

But just 13 months after the Autonomy sale, HP announced an $8.8bn writedown of the assets “due to serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations” which it claimed had artificially inflated the company’s value. The authorities investigated, and while the UK Serious Fraud Office found insufficient evidence, in 2018 the US authorities indicted Lynch for fraud. Soon after, Autonomy’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to five years in prison.

In March 2019 HP followed up with a civil action for fraud in London. Lynch spent days in the witness box as the civil action stretched over nine months. It ended in January 2022 with the judge ruling that HP had substantially succeeded, but that damages would be much less than the $5bn they had claimed.

Meanwhile the US authorities sought Lynch’s extradition on criminal charges of conspiracy and fraud. In spite of representations by senior politicians and accusations that the US authorities were attempting to exercise “extraterritorial jurisdiction”, a district judge ruled in favour of extradition.

An application for judicial review and a further appeal failed, and in May 2023 Lynch was flown to the US to be held under house arrest in San Francisco, with the prospect of a 25-year sentence.

Charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy, on 18 March this year Lynch pleaded not guilty, alongside his former vice-president of finance, Stephen Chamberlain. On 6 June, they were found not guilty of all charges. Chamberlain died after being hit by a car on 17 August.

Lynch declared that he wanted to get back to what he loved doing – innovating. But he had little opportunity to do so. He soon embarked on a voyage to celebrate his acquittal, with family, colleagues and business associates. It ended with the sinking of his yacht, Bayesian – named after the 18th-century mathematician, Thomas Bayes, whose work on probability had informed much of his thinking – in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily.

Lynch is survived by his wife and elder daughter, Esme. Their other daughter, Hannah, was also on board the Bayesian.

🔔 Michael Richard Lynch, technology entrepreneur, born 16 June 1965; died 19 August 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[mariacallous]

I can predict with safety that the prosecution of 700 innocent postmasters and mistresses will be remembered for decades.

It was not just that when the Post Office jailed employees and drove them to suicide it presided over one of the gravest miscarriages of justice in modern British history.

It is that the injustice will be remembered far beyond the UK. The technology said the postal workers were guilty of stealing from their tills, and everyone – judges, juries, police officers and government ministers – believed the faulty software rather than innocent men and women.

As facial recognition technologies take over police work and AI determines job prospects, the story of how the Post Office computers got it wrong will be a part of 21st century folklore.

But this terrible scandal deserves to be remembered for one other reason: the attitude of managers, who did not for a moment think there was something wrong in believing that hundreds of their colleagues were criminals.   

The notion that the accusations must be flawed because the scale of the alleged fraud and the numbers of suspects beggared belief never occurred to them. They justified their salaries and bonuses as a legitimate reward for presiding over underlings who were no better than common criminals.

Chris Dillow, the author of the Stumbling and Mumbling economics blog, is one of the best critics of the managerialist ideology that drove the Post Office scandal. You can listen to my Lowdown interview with him via the links above.

I thought it would be worth going through the evidence we discuss on the show as we look at the dictatorial attitude of so many managers.

We are not making an argument for anarchism. Successful organisations have successful managers.

They tend to be modest managers who understand that it is impossible for the people at the top of complex organisations to know all they need to know.  They have genuine consultations with their staff to fill the gaps in the knowledge. They do not behave like dictators by insisting on subservience and by refusing to allow criticism.

However many managers, perhaps most managers, are not like that. And here is the main reason.

They have been imbued with the ideology of managerialism, which holds that organizations in the public and private sector can be run from the top down by an elite of experts.

Instead of valuing specific knowledge about a company or organisation they believe in a generalist skill of “management”; and that a managerial elite can move from company to company, public body to public body, without losing effectiveness.

In place of specific, practical knowledge about the institutions they are meant to control, they offer “visions” and demand obedience.

Paula Vennells, was the chief executive of the Post Office as the number of false imprisonments rocketed.  She had not spent a working lifetime getting to know her colleagues. She had flitted between  Unilever, L'Oréal, Dixons Retail, Argos, Whitbread, the Cabinet Office and the Anglican Church.

If the people at the top of organisations cannot know all they need to know, and if their subordinates know they must suck up to the boss and tell him what he wants to hear rather than what he needs to hear, then you have miniature versions of Vladimir Putin’s Russia where no one dares contradict the big boss.

The type of people who thrive in these conditions are, frankly, psychopaths. By which I do not mean mass murderers but egomaniacs with no capacity for empathy or remorse.

According to a study dating back to 2010, there were at least three times as many psychopaths in executive or CEO roles than in the overall population. More recent data estimated that psychopaths filled 20 percent of executive posts

The Dutch management scholar and psychoanalyst Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries described managers who were

“Outwardly normal, apparently successful and charming, [but] their inner lack of empathy, shame, guilt, or remorse, has serious interpersonal repercussions, and can destroy organizations. Their great adaptive qualities mean they often reach top executive positions, especially in organizations that appreciate impression management, corporate gamesmanship, risk taking, coolness under pressure, domination, competitiveness, and assertiveness. The ease with which [they] rise to the top raises the question whether the design of some organizations makes them a natural home for psychopathic individuals.”

Shareholders may think that psychopath bosses will benefit them by keeping the profits flowing. As one business theorist put it in 2022

“Being a CEO or in a position of true power requires certain skills and abilities that psychopaths exhibit with ease. Making objective, clinical decisions entirely void of emotion, planning meticulously and in great detail, being patient, restless and confident, having a need to be in control… are all characteristics that psychopaths and prominent leaders share.”

And it is true that I have never heard of a CEO or head of HR refusing to fire subordinates because they could not bring themselves to ruin the lives of people less fortunate than themselves.

For all the talk about woke corporations and management diversity and inclusion initiatives, when it comes to mass sackings the new boss is much the same as the old boss. And you can see why that might please the shareholders.

Chris Dillow explains it thus

“People who are unusually concerned with status and power are precisely those who aim for the top of hierarchies (whereas many others of us just want to get on with our jobs), and psychopaths' superficial charm and fluency appeals to hirers. As David Allen Green says, "the likes of Paula Vennells are always with us and will always somehow obtain senior positions." This is consistent with a finding by Luigi Zingales and colleagues, that a lot more corporate fraud occurs than is actually detected. What's more, companies also select for over-confidence as they mistake ‘competence cues’ - the right body language or the illusion of knowledge - for actual ability. (All this might also apply to politics).”

You might think shareholders have nothing to complain about because vicious management protects dividends. But, as I have seen happen many times in the media, brutal managers can destroy businesses.

Chris explained the tension

“Often a company needs to cut costs and a psychopath who doesn't care about making people redundant, might be better at cutting costs than someone who's more empathetic. On other hand, we know that, psychopathic tendencies, can be very corrosive to an organization because it leads to managers who don't listen, managers who are so determined to make cuts to their organization that they end up cutting not just the fat, as they like to think, but, but cutting the meat and the muscle as well.”

If you listen to the podcast, you will hear a long discussion on why checks and balances don’t work. In theory shareholders are in control. In practice, as economists have recognised since the 19th century, they do not have day to day power. Managers can enrich themselves and follow disastrous policies without being stopped.

In the case of the Post Office, all checks and balances failed including, and most ominously, the checks of the legal system.

Dismal though that picture is, I will not end with it. One point that is not made often enough is that today’s full employment in the UK and the US is freeing workers. People who are stuck in terrible organisations with psycho bosses can just walk out and w​alk into other jobs.

Full employment is not high up on progressive wish lists. But for millions it is a liberation.