Facebook and Google Were Victims of $100M Payment Scam

Employees of Facebook and Google were the victims of an elaborate $100 million phishing attack, according to a new report on Fortune, which further adds that the employees were tricked into sending money to overseas bank accounts. From the report: In 2013, a 40-something Lithuanian named Evaldas Rimasauskas allegedly hatched an elaborate scheme to defraud U.S. tech companies. According to the Justice Department, he forged email addresses, invoices, and corporate stamps in order to impersonate a large Asian-based manufacturer with whom the tech firms regularly did business. The point was to trick companies into paying for computer supplies. The scheme worked. Over a two-year span, the corporate imposter convinced accounting departments at the two tech companies to make transfers worth tens of millions of dollars. By the time the firms figured out what was going on, Rimasauskas had coaxed out over $100 million in payments, which he promptly stashed in bank accounts across Eastern Europe. Fortune adds that the investigation raises questions about why the companies have so far kept silence and whether -- as a former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission observes -- it triggers an obligation to tell investors about what happened.

Comments

Paradoxical.

[Gravis Zero]

the investigation raises questions about why the companies have so far kept silence and whether [...] it triggers an obligation to tell investors about what happened.

The problem is that disclosure is paradoxical.

1) Scammed corporations need to tell their stockholders because if the information is found out, it could negatively affect the value of the stock therefore it's in the interest of the stockholders to be told.
2) By covering it up, corporations prevent the stock from dropping and thus maintaining the value of the stock which is in the interest of the stockholders therefore the information should be withheld from stockholders.

Until a legislative imperative resolves this paradox, corporations will take the path that aligns with their own interests.