Comment by jariel

The fraud is not interesting.

The fact that big companies and Big CEO's are stupid and incompetent is the interesting thing.

Everyone who worked on this deal at GM should be fired along with the CEO.

I once worked at a 'Big Company' that thought about buying n Mp3 player. Everyone loved their CEO, their pitch, the box, product looked slick.

We were going to buy it. I took it home and tried it and it was garbage.

Literally our M&A team, execs, due diligence and nobody bothered to fing try the dam product* and use a little bit of common sense to ascertain whether it was 'quality' or not.

This was not fraud, and of a much smaller scale, but it's just incredible how big the 'blind spot' so many executives have.

Edit: I said executives were 'stupid' they generally are not. They just have gaping holes in their abilities, that enough ego doesn't allow them to even see themselves. It's understandable they don't want to look weak, but insane that they don't do background/deep checks.

If I were a CEO I would include 'product & IP validation' right up front as part of due diligence - not just by 'accredited people' (because you can't get a 'CA' in tech) but by people you trust.

Edit 2:

"Trevor has appointed his brother, Travis, as “Director of Hydrogen Production/Infrastructure” to oversee this critical part of the business. Travis’s prior experience looks to have largely consisted of pouring concrete driveways and doing subcontractor work on home renovations in Hawaii."

Oh please make this into a Tiger King Netflix special ...