| > I also see how RealPage likely got caught up and thought this was business insights they were selling as a data aggregator Almost everyone I've met who has ended up in trouble with the law in business got where they are by this exact pattern. When they get caught, it's usually just naked, obvious crime. I've seen: * Trading fake invoices between subsidiaries to increase top-line revenue leading to fraud charges. * Fake billing between companies to paper over private use of a business jet. * Medical billing software where diagnostic codes were optimized by matching the procedure to the highest paying service scenario. i.e. making applying a bandage be a emergency surgery bandage application which would be billed at 9x the price of a normal office visit. * Lots of startups that started with a forward looking "were' going to build invention x" only to discover two years in that invention x is not possible. Instead of pivoting, the founders double down on invention x to raise more money with a "we're close" or "we are commercializing as we speak" pitch. * Taking loans against customer owned securities. Behold infinite non-diluting cash, and infinite jail time when caught. In every case, the pattern was completely ok from the founder's point of view, but when you look at the practice in total it was pretty easy to see crime. |