The Millipede
04 Nov 2015
Re: Grant Thornton Any auditors out there who can confirm? My impression is that people often think they are out there detecting fraud when in reality I am not sure that is true, especially when a fraud is so well set up as this.I think the turn of events here is fascinating. The red flags have been there for anyone to see for quite some time, despite the denials of some (and I think the recent failed bond issue was probably one of the biggest). And I think it is usual for frauds to unravel quite quickly after the sort of allegations Quintessential put out - so this conforms to the pattern. What this says about AIM is anybody's guess - we can all have a view and mine is that, after this, Plus500, QPP, CAMKIDS, Naibu, China Chaintek etc, probably the only reason not to shut it down is that it would be unjust to penalise genuine investors in the handful of genuine firms that have AIM listings. Obviously the likes of Simon Thompson have some serious souk searching to do but I would also say to investors here that investing after a tip in a magazine is not actual research - you know, the stuff everyone is meant to do before they invest, especially in individual firms, especially in AIM - and so, having basically put your money in here after a tip from someone you do not even know, I think you probably deserve your losses. But the key now is to learn the lesson and not make the same mistake twice. And if you still can't work out that the former CEO has been out to con you from the start (remembering that he has now admitted to selling millions of pounds worth of stock and not telling you) then you probably should stick to tracker funds. Forget your money here. You invested in what has been a pretty obvious con to many for some time..... that makes your investment skills very poor indeed. BWDIK
romaron
04 Nov 2015
Tested in public From today's FT:===Globo imbroglio You can make a lot of money investing in Aim stocks. If you are a short seller. Mobile technology group Globo has crashed into administration less than a fortnight after a critical report from New York hedge fund Quintessential. This questioned Globo’s results and the availability of its products. Chief executive Konstantinos Papadimitrakopolous (who has resigned) has done better than investors whose stock will be cancelled as worthless. On October 24 he told the board he had sold 42m shares and pledged 10m more against a personal loan. Valued at the suspension price, these stakes were worth £14m. Mr P also said the company’s financial position had been misrepresented. Nuance is required in taking a merited pop at the London Stock Exchange, which conflictedly runs and regulates Aim. There should be no recriminations over the regularity with which Aim companies fail. A stock market is a place where business ideas are tested in public. But there should be concern over the frequency with which Aim companies fail in murky circumstances. [email protected]  
JakNife
04 Nov 2015
Re: Grant Thornton Topalov,You wrote:"Auditors can't be doing their jobs properly if they rely on information provided by Directors and officers of the company. This is why they verify with debtors and creditors and check that assets acrtually exist rather than taking the figures on the ledger at face value."The issue is that the CEO and CFO created a web of companies with which Globo then traded. They then hid the fact that those companies were connected parties from the auditors. Hence the auditors verified that the debtors and creditors did exist but were unable to determine that the debtors and creditors were with connected parties and thus should actually be consolidated into the group.I’m still not convinced that there’s any reasonable complaint that could be levelled at Grant Thornton.JakNife
Topalov
04 Nov 2015
Re: Grant Thornton Auditors can't be doing their jobs properly if they rely on information provided by Directors and officers of the company. This is why they verify with debtors and creditors and check that assets acrtually exist rather than taking the figures on the ledger at face value.Off course it is more difficult when Directors have gone to the trouble of falsifying information.It will be interestinbg to know how the cash was hidden.
spankaroo
03 Nov 2015
Re: Mike Jeremy Remember Mr Jeremy pushing Vyke, which went the same way as gobbledygook
The Millipede
03 Nov 2015
Re: Grant Thornton Basically because the auditors rely on honest information from directors to do their work properly. Auditors do not check the information. They use it.
arborman
03 Nov 2015
Re: coincidence? I know a lot of folk here have 'Hardbuy' on ignore......Ironic BUY rec...
Gooffy
03 Nov 2015
Grant Thornton How can they do an audit and then the company go into admin.
Orchard Gate
03 Nov 2015
coincidence? Can it be just a coincidence that a frequent bullish poster on Globo is 'Hardboy', the same poster who was equally bullish about AiM fraud Naibu? He said that company could not be a fraud because the interim results were audited (they weren't but irrelevant anyway as all companies which are frauds have audited annual accounts) and that to suggest otherwise - which I did, repeatedly - was "being libellous towards the LSE”. Does it take a special sort of person to be invested in two companies which are revealed as major frauds in the same year? I also note GCCR was a big fan of Globo as he has been thoughout with Monitise (down 96%). Maybe some people are just magnetically attracted to car crashes. Before the crash.
Gerald99
03 Nov 2015
Class action US NEDs Hi all,I will contact Keller Rohrback and will let you know what they say?[link]
Ripley94
03 Nov 2015
Re: Symmetry Capital Comment Motley Fool 19 Sept ' modest debt ' set to post stunning gains .Moni would of been better.23 Sept ( one month before suspension ) 'my fellow foolish writers are resoundingly bullish on this stock '
Gerald99
03 Nov 2015
Re: Administration We can still raise a class action against the NED and 2 of them are worth 10's of million?
Ripley94
03 Nov 2015
Re: Administration Just spoke to them , there is not enough money to pay creditors .costos is speaking to them he has not gone.
gallant02
03 Nov 2015
Re: Administration Sounds like there's a done deal already in place, we are screwed and can only now rely on a legal claim. Typical administrators, only bothered about covering their fees!"No dividends are expected to be available for shareholders".
Gooffy
03 Nov 2015
Re: Administration Very blunt RNS, where is Costis, will we know what happened, do administrators have to do a report of there findings.
