Member Info for EasiWynns

CR888 - "... If ML is being extradited , when would that happen , or is it still being contested ? Has it been fully decided he should face music in Usa and if so why is he still here , ..."

He's appealing, and this is from the Guardian, Jan 2022, when his extradition was approved:

"The home secretary, Priti Patel, has approved the extradition of Mike Lynch, the tech entrepreneur once hailed as Britain’s answer to Bill Gates, to the US to answer criminal fraud charges. On Friday night, his lawyers said he would appeal.
Earlier in the day, Hewlett-Packard won its six-year civil fraud case against Lynch after a [UK] high court judge ruled that he duped the US firm into overpaying for his software firm Autonomy, sold to HP for $11bn (£8.2bn) in 2011.
Lynch was found to have defrauded HP by manipulating Autonomy’s accounts to inflate the value of the company. He has always denied the accusation and said on Friday that he would appeal.
But the outcome of the trial also coincided with a deadline for Patel to decide whether Lynch could be extradited to the US. Earlier this week, he lost a high court bid that would have given Patel more time to decide."

One complication for him might be that Autonomy's former CFO, Sushovan Hussain, has already been jailed for five years in the US after being found guilty of fraud relating to the deal.

Poppy Gustafsson was also the Financial(?) "Corporate Controller" at Autonomy Corporation from mid(?)-2009 until Dec 2011, by which time it was HP Autonomy after the takeover deal was closed in Oct 2011 (see LinkedIn).

ShortWhacker - Someone previously here explained why I was wrong on the name, where Gabriele is a masculine name in Italy, but it's more common to be feminine elsewhere, so apologies for that.

The Investor Show link:
https://ukinvestor.com/speakers-2021/gabriele-grego/

Ok, that's very interesting. So they were stating a potential 85% downside (so approx. 250p to 37.5p?) from the start of their campaign, which would have then netted them many, many millions. Conversely, if it reaches some of the broker estimates, then I guess they're in very serious trouble if they still have the shorts in place.

Shorting is certainly a very high risk, and potentially high reward, occupation, and you presumably need to know what you're doing before you'd even think about doing it, never mind actually doing it. In any case, it seems like the market has so far concluded that's there's no substance to their allegations.

Quite surprised 'investor6''s account has yet to be deleted - but there's always hope, I guess.

Just thought I'd check-in here to see what the pro-criminal-Russians brigade are up to - and as expected, its just the same old nonsense, over and over again.

And this highlights why writing him off as simply any old "shorter" doesn't seem very prudent at all.

I know nothing about shorting, but I'd get out of the short position (no idea how much that would cost them), let the share buybacks, etc., cause the share price to soar (they'd like 500 - 1,000p, probably), then have a go again. But shorting is very risky and only for the brave and smart because your unleveraged upside is only 100% (as far as I understand it).

Obviously if their report is nonsense, and they know it, they'd be smart to leave and go somewhere else.

Or as the Guardian put it in the aforementioned article last year:

"Among the risks attached to the initial public offering, Darktrace admitted, was the prospect of liabilities arising from the Autonomy sale.

These included potential money-laundering charges, should the proceeds of that deal be found to have funded £6.6m in start-up loans that Lynch’s investment vehicle, Invoke Capital, extended to Darktrace as it grew."

Presumably such an outcome can only ever be possible if Mike Lynch is convicted of a criminal offence, and then only if the proceeds of that crime were then traced through Invoke capital to Darktrace and elsewhere.

This is perhaps the risk that Darktrace identified in their IPO prospectus.

I suppose that another risk is that former Darktrace employees are also caught up in this as well (but I have no idea), though you'd hope they'd have been more circumspect. I think that they may have missed this from the IPO prospectus, though.

In a Telegraph article from last year:

"Prosecutors [US authorities] allege the former Autonomy chief not only cooked Autonomy’s books but used his investment fund, Invoke Capital, to pay “hush money” to former staff by re-employing them at the fund and linked companies, including Darktrace."

"The Group may face potential liability arising out of its historic funding by Invoke."

My initial reading of this was simply that Mike Lynch may be convicted of a crime, receive a long and highly publicised custodial sentence (but innocent until proven guilty), and that wouldn't look good with his founding of, and long and deep association with Darktrace, with many of the current top employees and C-suit executives also having been former Autonomy employees. And that seems fair enough. Simple as that. Nothing more to add here.

But it may be less benign than it seems, which was highlighted in article in the Guardian last year that referenced the £6.6m in start-up funds that Invoke capital provided (according to the Guardian, anyway).

Of course it's only a risk, though risks always need to be viewed through the prism of probabilities i.e. how likely are they to happen? Ascertaining is the probabilities with any degree of accuracy is the key skill, probably so much merely identifying the risks themselves.

I've reminded the operators of this site they they may only wish to release these types of personal details to a third party with a court order or request from law enforcement agencies, but forgot to mention the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) that upholds " data privacy for individuals".

Anyway, it looks like perhaps PI_Winner has "won" in trying suppress alternative view points and fact-based arguments.
Perhaps I might be deleted next. Oh well.

"... if you contact the regulator they might provide you with an informed update ..."

QCM said they had sent their artefacts the the regulators, which I would assume is the UK's FCA and perhaps the US's SEC, and also to DT's current auditors.

QCM on Twitter:
"We are preparing a complete response with a thorough list of follow up questions for Darktrace's management. Such list will also be forwarded to Darktrace's auditors, regulators and other investigative bodies, along with our initial report."

EuropaEuropa - "There's no direct relationship between current chair and Lynch, as far as I understand."

- Chairman of Darktrace plc is Gordon Hurst
(Darktrace's website: "He has been on the Board of Featurespace since November 2014")
- Chairman of Featurespace Limited is Gordon Hurst - Mike Lynch resigned as a director on 26 January 2019

Mike Lynch's Invoke Capital lists both of the above companies on its website:
- Darktrace: https://www.invokecapital.com/news/the-creation-of-darktrace
- Featurespace: https://www.invokecapital.com/featurespace

"I have noticed that the profile of the poster (C29) who questioned the moral compass of some investors on this board and who posted vigorously against Darktrace and in support of QCM has either hidden their profile (if that is even even possible) or deleted their profile as all their posts have dissappeared."

PI_Winner posted yesterday that "I am going to call LSE tomorrow to see if we can ringfence the chat from tomorrow", so perhaps this is one consequence.

HP really liked the product, it was the fraud they were less keen on.

[Now] - CATHY GRAHAM is Darktrace’s Chief Financial Officer:
"... Previously at 2U, a global leader in education technology, she has extensive experience in developing and maturing hyper-growth technology companies."
https://darktrace.com/people/cathy-graham

[May 2021] - Investor unease threw spanner into works of Darktrace’s flotation:
"Cybersecurity firm’s links to Mike Lynch rang alarm bells across the City"
"One City source raised questions over the chief financial officer. CATHERINE GRAHAM left her previous job as finance chief of 2U, an American ..." [the rest is behind the paywall, and I've not paid]
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/investor-unease-threw-spanner-into-works-of-darktraces-flotation-dh3m0rnkt

[Aug 2019] - Many People Saw The Crash Of A Billion Dollar EdTech Company Coming:
"Sometimes, even when you see it coming, the crash is spectacular ... That was the case with 2U"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2019/08/29/many-people-saw-the-crash-of-a-billion-dollar-edtech-company-coming/?sh=15a995811274

[Aug 2019] - 2U’s CFO CATHERINE GRAHAM is retiring after 7 years with the edtech company:
"She will continue to oversee 2U's fiscal year-end reporting requirements until April 2020, or the appointment of her successor."
https://technical.ly/startups/2us-cfo-catherine-graham-is-retiring-after-7-years-with-the-edtech-startup/

Stock prices of 2U Inc. (approx.):

- 10 Feb 2023: USD 9.69 (all time low)
- 12 Feb 2021: USD 54.65
- 27 Apr 2020: USD 22.24 (retirement around this date?)
- 01 Aug 2019: USD 13.42 (Aug low)
- 14 Jun 2018: USD 96.74 (all time high)

Fall - high to low: 90.0%

While I don't see this mentioned at all in any of QCM's related artefacts, that's probably because they were focusing on suspicious or fraudulent behaviour, and that their initial company selection was likely based on previous frauds and fraudsters (i.e. Autonomy et al), but that's only my opinion - and no, I'm still not short, and never will be.

I imagine they might also be disappointed that they didn't pick up on 2U as a prime candidate for their short activism, which could presumably have made them a fortune if they'd timed it correctly.

(Disclaimer: the above quotes, facts and figures all look accurate to me, but please correct anything that looks erroneous. And of course keep DYOR.)

The Investor Show misspelled his first name, you're saying.

PI_Winner - Your position is crystal clear and seemingly immutable, and that's absolutely ok. You trust Darktarce's executive management implicitly, and that's fine, and you reject any notion that QCM may have raised some important issues, and that's also fine.

Other people may have attended the school of hard knocks and been in a similar position before where the outcome was catastrophic, and so are understandably more cautious and sceptical (Disclosure: I'm in the latter category).

PI_Winner - QCM seem to be highly respected in their field, and has an impressive record of success in their short position activism.

So the question to you, and others who summarily dismiss their report and questions, is simply this: why have QCM made an uncharacteristic mistake on this occasion?

ShortWhacker - Not sure about the event in 2023, but the webpage I saw with him on had '2021' in the URL.

As to whether the final letter of his first name ends with an 'e' or not, I'm sure he knows, but with an 'e' it's normally the feminine form of Gabriel.

'Storing gold is another issue because many people store gold at home. ... “Not everyone understands they cannot keep bars in a shoebox.”'

Consequence: Many people (thieves) searching for shoeboxes containing scratched gold bars where other people (victims of crime) have failed to understand this. An ETF holding physical gold is so much easier, and safer.