Apokalyps Nu!

Why Is Ernst And Young The Auditor At So Many Companies That Have Recently Imploded

Posted by EN-AGon 18 oktober 2020in Ernst

18-10-20 09:30:00,

If there’s one tie that binds some of the more recent and obvious implosions in capital markets – Luckin Coffee, Wirecard and NMC Health to name a few – is that Ernst & Young has been the auditor.

The big four accounting firm has “missed red flags or failed to aggressively pursue them” at many of these companies ahead of their scandals, according to a new write up by The Wall Street Journal.

Regulators are now taking a look at E&Y’s work, the report claims, as a result.

E&Y has stood by its work and has attested that it has high standards. But it’s tough to not want to try and notice that a trend is emerging with companies that are blowing up spectacularly.

Andy Baldwin, EY’s global client service managing partner, told WSJ: “We take all issues extremely seriously.”

E&Y also said it had roles in uncovering the fraud at two companies. The company has advocated for auditors to play a larger role in detecting fraud at companies, which would shift the onus on an industry that has been quick to back away at that responsibility for years.

E&Y has had “ties with executive and board members” at some of the troubled companies – including former E&Y partners sitting on companies’ boards and audit committees.

The firm charges lower fees for audits than other big four firms, allowing them to take on more work. They also focus on younger, quick moving companies. For example, they prepared the audits for Google and Facebook, among others. It has a history of trying to attract companies that are looking to go public.

A former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chief accountant said that “EY prices its audits exceedingly competitively low to attract these companies with the hope that when they go public, they will make up for the initial discounts of audit fees.”

The fees paid from companies can put pressure on auditing firms; both to offer low prices and to make sure that adequate resources are devoted to an audit. Many audit firms have started to take on consulting and tax work, in addition to audits,

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The “Titanic” Analogy You Haven’t Heard: Passively Accepting Oblivion

Posted by EN-AGon 18 oktober 2020in Titanic

18-10-20 09:25:00,

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Whether we realize it or not, we’re responding with passive acceptance of oblivion.

You’ve undoubtedly heard rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as an analogy for the futility of approving policy tweaks to address systemic crises. I’ve used the Titanic as an anology to explain the fragility of our financial system and the “glancing blow” of the pandemic:

Why Our Financial System Is Like the Titanic (March 15, 2016)

Coronavirus and the “Unsinkable” Titanic Analogy (January 29, 2020)

But there’s a powerful analogy you haven’t heard before. To understand the analogy, we first need to recap the tragedy’s basic set-up.

On April 14, 1912, the liner Titanic, considered unsinkable due to its watertight compartments, struck a glancing blow against a massive iceberg on that moonless, weirdly calm night. In the early hours of April 15, the great ship broke in half and sank, ending the lives of the majority of its passengers and crew.

Of the 2,208 passengers and crew onboard, 1,503 perished and 705 survived. The lifeboats had a maximum capacity of 1,178, so some 475 people died unnecessarily. Passengers of the Titanic (wikipedia)

The initial complacency of the passengers and crew after the collision is another source of analogies relating to humanity’s near-infinite capacity for denial.

The class structure of the era was enforced by the authorities–the ship’s officers. As the situation grew visibly threatening, the First Class passengers were herded into the remaining lifeboats while the steerage/Third Class passengers–many of them immigrants–were mostly kept below decks. Officers were instructed to enforce this class hierarchy with their revolvers.

Two-thirds of all passengers died, but the losses were not evenly distributed: 39% of First Class passengers perished, 58% of Second Class passengers lost their lives and 76% of Third Class passengers did not survive.

Rudimentary calculations by the ship’s designer, who was on board to oversee the maiden voyage, revealed the truth to the officers: the ship would sink and there was no way to stop it. The ship was designed to survive four watertight compartments being compromised,

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135 Doctors in Chile Ask Health Minister for Moratorium on 5G – Activist Post

Posted by EN-AGon 18 oktober 2020in Doctors

18-10-20 09:16:00,

By B.N. Frank

There ARE studies that have ALREADY determined 5G is NOT safe. Cities AND entire countries have taken action to ban, delay, halt, and limit installation AS WELL AS issue moratoriums on deployment.

The majority of scientists worldwide oppose 5G until there are studies that prove it isn’t unsafe. Doctors and scientists have asked for a worldwide moratorium (see 1, 2). They have also asked their legislators for moratoriums in various countries as well including the U.S, The Netherlands, and now Chile.

From Environmental Health Trust:

More than 130 doctors in Chile ask Health Minister Paris for a moratorium on the deployment of 5G technology

A letter signed by 135 health professionals across Chile has requested a moratorium on the deployment of 5G technology until it is certain that it does not pose a risk to human health and the environment.

READ THE LETTER HERE

“The biological effect of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, as is the case with 5G technology, has been extensively investigated by independent industry scientists and thousands of studies reliably demonstrate the negative biological effects on human and human health. environment, “the statement said.

The Doctors have proposed “to create a Committee of Experts to analyze independently from economic and political groups, the scientific evidence on the issue of exposure to non-ionizing electromagnetic radio frequency waves, in the public health and assess the risks from a scientific point of view that the deployment of 5G technology could bring. ”

They request “that said commission be inter-ministerial with a representative of the Ministry of Sciences (led by Mr. Andrés Couve C.), a member of the Ministry of the Environment (led by Ms. Carolina Schmidt Z.), a member of the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications (led by Ms. Gloria Hutt H.) and experts from the Medical College, among others, in order to achieve a qualitatively optimal, coordinated work with an impact on public policy “.

Doctors can sign the 5G appeal at this link. https://uxtr.org/apelacion-chile-5g/

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Funding of 2007 French presidential election campaign

Posted by EN-AGon 17 oktober 2020in Funding

17-10-20 09:52:00,

Aude Buresi and Marc Sommerer, the investigating judges who replaced Judge Serge Tournaire in the inquiry into the funding of Nicolas Sarkozy’s election campaign, have indicted him for a fourth time, on 16 October 2020.

In 2011, after the overthrow of the authorities of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and country’s occupation by NATO, Thierry Meyssan reported having organized in Tripoli a cell in charge of tracking evidence of various embezzlements on the part of French politicians [1].

According to Thierry Meyssan, there is no doubt that Nicolas Sarkozy has committed serious criminal offenses, yet it is not acceptable to impose a sentence on him alone and not prosecute his rival, Ségolène Royal, whose campaign was also funded by Libya. Either justice is applied equally, or it becomes a political instrument. Finally, it is necessary to take an in-depth look into the funding of political campaigns which, despite the new legislative arsenal put in place, still require foreign money.

This affair should not be seen as an attempt at corruption by the Libyan state (which it also is), but above all as a malfunctioning of the French democratic system which must imperatively be redressed.

[1] Testimony by Thierry Meyssan before the Tunisian press (2011), then on Syrian Arab Television (2012), in his book, Fake Wars and Big Lies (2017), and finally before Judge Tournaire.

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Russia holds military exercise off Azerbaijan

Posted by EN-AGon 16 oktober 2020in Russia

16-10-20 08:50:00,

The Russian army began a military exercise on 16 October 2020 in the Caspian Sea, north of the Abşeron peninsula, near the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.

This “exercise” comprises six warships, seven aircraft and 400 special forces men.

Four of the ships, frigates Dagestan and Tatarstan and corvettes Uglich and Veliky Ustyug, are equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles.

These maneuvers do not pose a threat to neighbouring states, the Russian Defense Ministry pointed out.

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