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Could Crowdsourcing Help the SEC Detect Fraud?
An anonymous reader writes "The SEC failed to catch Bernie Madoff largely because they are understaffed (a fact the SEC itself has admitted), under-funded, and simply lack the resources to adequately investigate his activities. Undoubtedly, there were other smaller incidents of fraud that have gone unpunished because of this deficiency. To solve this egregious issue, NERA Economic Consulting proposed crowdsourcing, the concept behind Wikipedia's existence. Proving financial fraud is essentially an exercise in finding numbers that do not match. Through crowdsourcing, regulators would make financial data publicly available to the masses, who would do the 'grunt work' of sifting through them to find discrepancies. But would it work?"
Maybe they would be behind if they actually worked. You know, come to work and actually do their jobs rather than watching porn,
"while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." de Tocqueville
Maybe they would be keeping up with their workload if they were, you know, working rather than watching porn. I mean, if things are so lax that recording porn on an everyday basis for extended periods of time happens what are the non-porn-addicts doing with their time? Just surfing the web? Sleeping? Who knows when there is no supervision and it's blatantly obvious that no one cares what the employees are doing?
"while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." de Tocqueville
... on their favorite topic. Not to mention the will to do so.
Not everyone has the skills to check complex accounting files. I guess incentives need to be setup here. In at least one big developed country (is it the US or Japan? I can't remember) a member of a cartel has an incentive to speak up and will see its sentence reduced as it helped bust out other members. It's worked in the past (and for a big cartel). Such incentives are the only way to guarantee that people will actually do the job and help.
To Mrs Shapiro: give me a couple grand, send me your files and I'll read them!
... on their favorite topic. And a lot of people have the will to do it.
Not everyone is ready to go through complex accounting files, nor has the skills to actually do it. One needs to setup proper incentives is this is to work. In an OECD country (not sure which one), a member of a cartel who goes clean with regulators will see its sentence waived as it helps bust out other cartel members. It's very efficient and there have been successful outings in the past.
To Mrs Shapiro: Send me a couple grand, accounting PDFs and I'll read through them! Otherwise, no thanks, I'm busy.