Fraud is no fun without friends

February 4, 2022 11:31 AM

The work-from-home phenomenon has triggered a fresh frustration for U.S. corporations: Americans are blowing the whistle on their employers like never before. Matt Levine [Bloomberg Opinions] contextualizes the findings: grooming new people to engage in fraud takes time, social flattery, and bonding, and COVID isolation makes that a lot harder and makes it a lot easier for new people to complain to compliance officers. More data on the phenomenon from the SEC at Bloomberg.
posted by sciatrix (24 comments total)

Both the articles are a year old, but the SEC Fiscal Year 2021 report (PDF) shows an even bigger number of tips last year.

It would be interesting to see how widespread this is in other industries. A quick search doesn't show me whistleblowing metrics on the DOL website, though.
posted by KGMoney at 11:48 AM on February 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I can't even read the article because your summary has reduced me to tears of laughter. Haahahaha, this is the exact kind of news I needed to read on Friday.
posted by MiraK at 12:08 PM on February 4, 2022 [22 favorites]

I love the way that the author repeatedly goes on about how, like, "it's good that they are catching fraud, but also, in another way, it's bad because -- hear me out -- people are not feeling loyal enough to their employers to do anything they say, including -- and I get that this is bad -- fraud."
posted by gauche at 12:11 PM on February 4, 2022 [87 favorites]

“I guess this story is good news from a prevention-of-financial-crime perspective, but it is sort of a sad story from a human perspective. All these people feeling disconnected from their work and their colleagues, with no strong personal ties of loyalty and friendship and common mission. Sure the common mission in these particular cases was crime, but still.”

I honestly don’t know why I was surprised to read this take in Bloomberg.
posted by Kattullus at 12:12 PM on February 4, 2022 [47 favorites]

Stick around for the conclusion on how SEC rules can sidestep normal politics to be more effective on climate than EPA or diversity than nobody.
posted by migurski at 12:15 PM on February 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

I was going to leave a long, detailed comment, and then I realized it would be a very very bad thing to do on the internet, pseudonym or no. Suffice it to say the article is not wrong that it's harder to report your company's criminal activities if you know and care about some of the people who would be SOL if the company were shut down.
posted by tzikeh at 12:24 PM on February 4, 2022 [20 favorites]

The real crime was the friends we made along the way.
posted by biogeo at 12:26 PM on February 4, 2022 [94 favorites]

This story is a sort of leading indicator of a breakdown in morale and group cohesion generally as so much work is done from home. That is probably bad for a lot of projects; it’s just that one of the projects it’s bad for is fraud.
Given Matt Levine's past body of writing, I'm fairly confident the humor here is intentional. Be careful not to fall into the trap of reading an Onion or McSweeney article too straight-faced.
posted by CrystalDave at 12:29 PM on February 4, 2022 [15 favorites]

The isolation that comes with being separated from a communal workplace has made many employees question how dedicated they are to their employers, according to lawyers for whistle-blowers and academics. What’s more, people feel emboldened to speak out when managers and co-workers aren’t peering over their shoulders.
“You’re not being observed at the photocopy machine when you’re working from home,” said Jordan Thomas, a former SEC official who helped set up the agency’s whistle-blower program a decade ago.

This explains some organisations repeated pushes to return to the office prematurely, the health and lives of their employees and loved ones be damned.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 12:32 PM on February 4, 2022 [30 favorites]

Nobody wants to commit fraud anymore.
posted by RobotHero at 12:45 PM on February 4, 2022 [24 favorites]

Millennials came for Ridley Scott movie box offices, and I did nothing because I didn't want to watch brutal rapes a few times from different angles.

Millennials came for committing fraud on behalf of megacorps, and I did nothing because I didn't want to commit fraud on behalf of megacorps.

Wait... isn't there supposed to be a downside when I'm listing these things? Turns out, good things DO happen.

My personal experience on this whole corporate malfeasance thing is I had a bunch of people I considered fairly decent, including my best friend who I consider a top shelf human, cover up some fraud I found at my last job. It was disheartening to say the least. That was before *waves hand outside* and I thought there was a bottom to anything. There isn't, I know that now.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:49 PM on February 4, 2022 [24 favorites]

I had a bunch of people I considered fairly decent, including my best friend who I consider a top shelf human, cover up some fraud I found at my last job.

We should start a club. We could get hats.
posted by tzikeh at 12:57 PM on February 4, 2022 [20 favorites]

Someone might monetize the hats, though.
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:59 PM on February 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

And thus was the Anticapitalist Hat Club NFT created...
posted by kaibutsu at 1:02 PM on February 4, 2022 [12 favorites]

Ooo, I like hats. Maybe t-shirts so the slogan can be longer like "I tried, and no one gave a shit" and on the back

"Now I got Depression"
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 1:05 PM on February 4, 2022 [17 favorites]

I have witnessed
the fraud
that my peers
engage in

and which
they were probably
committing
to pay gambling debts

Forgive me
they're not my friends
so SEC
prosecute them
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:08 PM on February 4, 2022 [48 favorites]

I'm looking for Bagel Street
posted by clavdivs at 2:23 PM on February 4, 2022

kaibutsu: "And thus was the Anticapitalist Hat Club NFT created..."

We should start a DAO and buy a photocopied version of Das Kapital and turn it into an animated series and sell it to Netflix.
posted by signal at 3:51 PM on February 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

Das Kapital is in the public domain so this is already a better plan than the last time someone thought that was a good idea.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:03 PM on February 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

Is there a site with that Bloomberg piece that isn't paywalled?
posted by tzikeh at 6:23 PM on February 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is a great pair with the immediately previous post. Affinity groups for good and evil.
posted by clew at 6:33 PM on February 4, 2022

I’d be a lot more cautious about agreeing to do something illegal if I was agreeing over an obviously recordable medium, even if I had nothing against fraud. Or possibly I’d be more willing to whistleblow if it had been proposed to me over a recordable medium; that too.
posted by clew at 6:36 PM on February 4, 2022 [12 favorites]

I’d be a lot more cautious about agreeing to do something illegal if I was agreeing over an obviously recordable medium, even if I had nothing against fraud.

You'd be surprised.
posted by praemunire at 11:46 PM on February 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

Millenials are ruining the fraud industry.
posted by ananci at 3:16 AM on February 5, 2022 [12 favorites]