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Dirty Money
2018 · TV series · documentary · 75 min episodes · 2 seasons
From crippling payday loans to cars that cheat emissions tests, this investigative series exposes brazen acts of corporate greed and corruption.
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Please tell us more! I watched a documentary, but here's an article I found.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-19/world-s-maple-syrup-market-has-quebec-cartel-calling-the-shots
Edit. Another article and I found the documentary, it was Dirty Money on Netflix
https://capx.co/an-unsavoury-business-the-story-of-canadas-syrup-cartel/
yes i love that episode of netflix’s dirty money - if through private investigation you find evidence of wrong doing you’re totally entitled to the profits of short selling, great incentive, if only we could fund more journalism this way
There's also an episode of the Netflix series Dirty Money about the heist: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7909196/
Dirty Money is a great TV series where the first episode went in-depth on the emissions scandal: https://www.netflix.com/title/80118100
The execs involved here have so much egg on their face.
Have you watched the Netflix Dirty Money episode about this? You might find it interesting. One of the things it claimed about what HSBC was doing was that they were simply failing to even acknowledge the flagged transactions and had a huge backlog of reports that were not only for very suspicious amounts but also transfers to/from entities that were on federal sanctions lists, and the blacklist was stupidly implemented so it could be bypassed by replacing e.g. XYZCO with XYZ-CO or XYZ.CO. Some AGs told them they had to get off their asses and start processing these reports, and they responded by hiring a sweatshop of inexperienced accountants and told them to just go through the backlog and close the reports without investigation.
The show is called Dirty Money, and the episode is "Cartel Bank" from season 1.
> Conversely, what stops bad actors just switching to doing transactions for t_rdigr_de, ta_dig_ade, or tar_igra_e and thumbing their nose at the filtering? (OK, realistically they would probably switch to some more obscure backup code but you get the idea.)
This literally happened at HSBC. Employees entered transactions in exactly the way you're imagining.
(I didn't find a written source, but this is covered in Netflix's "Dirty Money", episode "Cartel Bank")
Good to see, I guess. But I'm so tired of "settlements" where no-one has to admit guilt or face criminal sanctions.
BTW, The Netflix series "Dirty Money" has an entire episode titled "The Man at the Top" that provides very good background on this (almost unbelievable) corruption scandal.
Only part of the reserve was stolen. There is an episode of the Netflix docuseries "Dirty Money" dedicated to the theft and the Maple Syrup market.
What do you think of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room[0]? It's one of my favorite documentaries. I've watched it about a dozen times probably. Dirty Money[1] shares a creator (Alex Gibney) [2] with Smartest Guys, and I also really like that.
Over the weekend I watched American Factory[3]. It may be my new favorite. I don't know if I will watch it as much as Smartest Guys, just because of the storytelling in that.
I like these because they clearly represent different viewpoints. Most documentaries feel like propaganda, and these don't feel that way to me.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Money_(2018_TV_series)
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Gibney
3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Factory
Why would I pick a company to short, and then pay someone to bad mouth that company?
Seems like a lot less risk to pay analysts to find possible frauds, and then short them while disclosing what they found.
The Netflix series "Dirty Money" introduced me to this concept, episode 3 "Drug Short" covers the analysts who called out Valeant Pharmaceuticals and took a pay day for their hard work through shorting the stock. Really I found it inspirational :)
So why do the drug companies charge so much for the medicines then? I just finished watching the Valeant episode of Dirty Money and combined with this book, it all kind of makes no sense.
There's an episode on this on Dirty Money (Netflix), which might answer your question. IIRC, "fixing" it would impact performance/fuel economy.
I initially avoided that Dirty Money series because I thought it was going to be just another surface level rage bait documentary - like so many "finance" documentaries have been since the great recession. But it was very well done and had high information content.
I wasn't surprised to learn it was from the same director as The Smartest Guys in the Room (Enron Documentary). Bethany McLean even makes an appearance.
Netflix'a Dirty Money documentary Ep 1 covers this topic: https://www.netflix.com/title/80118100
Watch the HSBC episode of 'Dirty Money' on Netflix. They got away with a tiny slap on the wrist for absolutely glaring circumvention of anti money laundering rules. The best way I've heard it said is America has some of the strongest financial regulations in the world, there's just laughably weak enforcement of those regulations.
There's an episode of the Netflix documentary series "Dirty Money" specifically about payday lending. Lots has been written about it too. I believe John Oliver has a bit about it too.
This isn't about "freedom" and letting people make their own mistakes. It's basically a disgusting predatory practice designed to deceive and take advantage of the desperate and uninformed. When you look into it, what becomes clear is that people are intentionally deceived into thinking that that after X payments come out of their account the loan is repaid (when those are just "fees"). The agreement language is almost indecipherable.
Some states have tried to regulate this, which has typically just meant renaming things to get around legislation (if it ever gets that far).
You could probably mostly solve these problems by classifying fees that scale with the size of the loan as "interest". Perhaps people don't understand that if you borrow $100 the fee is $15 (per pay period) while at $300, the fee might be $40-50. It's not fixed. How exactly is this not interest?
You see ads on TV for this kind of product. What's funny is one of them is that one says "not available in New York for legal reasons" or somesuch. It's kind of sad that only the state of New York seems to have usury laws to prevent this.
What's also interesting is how payday lenders increasingly try and shield themselves from legal action using the sovereign immunity of native tribes (patent trolls also increasingly are trying this). The Netflix documentary has more on this.
Payday lenders are big donors to state politicians. In one example, a Texas assemblywoman who criticized the industry quit and was a lobbyist for that industry within weeks of that criticism. I forget her name.
Highly recommend the HSBC episode of Netflix's Dirty Money (especially if you also bank there, explained a lot of why they've been a really weird bank).
Thanks!!
- Betting on Zero (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3762912/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1):
Ha, I can't believe that Herbalife not only still exists but that if I look at its share price it even flourished, got into sponsoring, etc... - I know about the company because looong time back it did a push as well here in Switzerland, but as at that time I tagged it as "scam" I supposed that it would soon or later disappear... . Very interesting to be reminded about how "multi-level marketing"/"pyramid selling" works and very nice that by showing what that Ackman guy did I now understand as well e.g. all these recent discussions related to "short sellers" vs Tesla (I wasn't fully aware that "short selling" could be done in such an active way - I thought that some regulator would start targeting you...).
- The China Hustle (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7215388/?ref_=nv_sr_1)
Very interesting. I never heard about "reverse merges". Additionally I tended to think that e.g. the SEC and/or other regulators not only establish rules and react when they're not followed but actively check the truthfulness of the statements/informations beforehand, but it does not seem to be working that way (I can understand the reasons, but on the other hand this kind of defeats the reason of having such rules...). Btw a few weeks ago I stumbled upon some videos of this guy (e.g. "Why I refuse to buy property in China" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lAoTBVTTO8 ), which explain a bit how chinese people think and some of them are related to what is mentioned briefly in the documentary about the chinese housing bubble.
- Dirty Money (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7889220/?ref_=nv_sr_1): pending... .
A few favorites that come to mind.
- Betting on Zero. A documentary on the billion dollar short on Herbalife and whether or not Herbalife is a pyramid scheme. It is definitely biased towards making Bill Ackman look good (the guy who made it is friends with Ackman) but nonetheless is very interesting and if you are anti-MLM it will fit your view.
- Dirty Money. I wouldn't say it is straight finance but shows a variety of business stories that are very interesting. I thought the one on the payday loan guy was the most interesting. It is produced by Alex Gibney (who did the Enron doc) so if you liked that one then this will be up your alley too.
- The China Hustle. Highlights some difficult in investing in Chinese companies and how they differ in terms of standards and reporting.
One of the episodes on the Netflix documentary Dirty Money is about short sellers with regards to certain pharma stocks (the one click baiting with Skreli in the thumbnail but not in the story, otherwise it is a great watch). And one thing that struck about me about the short seller they interviewed was her analytical and systematic approach to it. What she was looking for was yet to be recognized flaws in a certain company that can only result in falling stocks in the long run. And than acting on them in concert with others.
A mean thing to do? Maybe. Or you could call it natural selection in some cases.
Going back to Tesla and Musk, I think his behaviour in the last couple of weeks, and all the information that surfaced since, probably just convinced every short seller out there that they are onto something.
EDIT: fixed some typos.
The Tesla episode on Dirty Money is going to be lit.
Check out the last episode of Dirty Money's Season 1. It's titled "The Confidence Man", if I'm not mistaken. It's on Trump. It's a very good episode, and offers a slightly different theory.
The Dirty Money episode on Tesla is going to be lit.
I can recommend the whole "Dirty Money" series that the article refers to. The episode about Scott Tucker was really interesting (and to me, an European), I had no idea that the Indian tribes were immune for certain prosecutions.
Excited for the Tesla episode of Dirty Money on Netflix when this story comes to an end.
On over priced drugs-- there's an episode of Dirty Money on Netflix on Valeant Pharmaceuticals' price gouging and fraud... It's mind boggling and depressing.
> I recommend reading about this or finding the documentary as I can't recall the name at the moment.
It's Dirty Money on Netflix episode 2 or 3.
What set me off about him is it wasn't just the loans, but he had in the fine print that if you did not login and click some button within thirty days of your loan automatically renewed. So people that paid it off really didn't because they never pushed the button.
Ton's of rich people suffer from delusional narcissism and the reason is most cheat to get there then delude themselves into thinking they are special.
If you have Netflix, watch the documentary "Dirty Money". Then come back and tell us you wouldn't have been in the same situation had some event in your past not gone your favor.
Are there any books you could recommend to learn more about why the American healthcare is a mess, how it became this way, as well as comparisons with other healthcare systems and why they work.
Could a PMR system help with some of these issues? Giving patients access to their records making it easier to aggregate data abiding with HIPAA?
I recently saw an episode of Dirty Money on Valeant. Is Valeant a good representation for most pharma companies and also a reflection of most for profit medical businesses whose primary obligation is to increase shareholder value?
What would be the best way to start aggregating and comparing prices in the USA? If it isn't possible, why do prices vary so much?
@lulmerchant
I'm from a poor working background too. You can look through my comment history, topics of poverty, drug abuse and macroeconomics are some of the many topics that typically interest me enough to contribute to the conversation here on Hacker News.
Your logic is absolutely sound, but in the event or period where you've taken the loan and have to pay it off in 1-2 weeks. What happens when said parents child gets sick and requires more nappies that day?
Perhaps they need medication.
Maybe they lost some cash walking to the grocery store.
They lost a days work.
There's no room for error and when or if that occurs. The entire benefit goes backwards and you end up losing so much more than you hoped to gain.
There's a whole myriad of reasons that could contribute to this loan going backwards when you have 0 disposable income.
But if you're borrowing $30 for nappies, it would not take much to then push you outside of that fortnightly budget so you are not able to meet your legal loan sharks contractual payments and that, by definition, is a financial slippery slope.
The financial industry relies on people like this, I would assume for every credit card owner that has 55 interest days free or a 0% balance transfer. There's another 9 who don't pay off in time and will incur interest charges and fees and make the entire business venture profitable.
Legal Loan sharks are profit driven, they are not providers of care, and they are not their to help you get ahead so you do not need to use their services again. Their business model is the exact opposite. They assume you will need to go back, and go back repeatedly.
You'd do well to watch Episode 2 of Dirty Money on Netflix - Payday. The entire episode is essentially a business case for why Loan Sharks should be avoided at all costs.
But the thing is, your maths is _correct_. So instead why can't we loan this person who lives in poverty from non-profits and similar who want to _help_ if it's so logically sound that allowing those in poverty to buy in bulk, will allow them to get ahead?
Also worth watching the Dirty Money episode (Netflix as well) on the pharmaceutical company Valeant. Ackerman was heavily involved here on the flip side (he was helping the wrongdoers rather than trying to short them and expose the fraud)
For anyone interested, the documentary Betting On Zero is very good (on Netflix). I'd be curious to hear how the film came together and got financed. It certainly has an agenda and Bill Ackman comes out looking pretty good vs Herbalife.
That said, Ackman looks a lot less good in episode 3 of "Dirty Money" regarding Valeant (also on Netflix).
Obligitory "the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent" quote.
EDIT: Just noticed Herbalife owns bettingonzero.com. They put up a "FAQ" saying Ackman secretly funded the doc and they're promoting the link with ads on Google.
Episode 1 (Hard NOx) of the Netflix series "Dirty Money" covers this quite well: https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/80118100 The other episodes are also worth a watch.
That was fascinating, thank you! I really appreciated the factual, no-nonsense documentary approach. So many current documentaries have annoyingly intrusive presenters and fill their runtime up with irrelevant aesthetic shots. (An honorable recent exception: Netflix's Dirty Money, which was produced by Alex Gibney, whose style I like a lot.)
Whoever is interested in this should take a look at Netflix' "Dirty Money" Episode 1. Alex Gibney (also directed Enron - smartest guys in the room) gives a good overview of the scandal, if you haven't been following it closely on the news. Very interesting, although I would have appreciated a deep dive into the actual algorithms used.. I'm sure there's articles on this though..
Regarding the human tests, as scandalous at it sounds on first glance, the SWR & ARD (government funded news channels similar to the BBC) also reported that it apparently isn't unusual to do this kind of human testing. The subjects were exposed to one specific kind of gas, and the dose, according to their correspondent, was less than what someone living at a busy street consumes regularly.
He mentioned that even Greenpeace "knows of these studies", referring to them in one of their papers.., whatever that means exactly.. He also states that the scientists were openly communicating that they were funded by the car manufacturers.
https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/bw/neben-affen-auch-menschenversuche/-/id=1622/did=21060086/nid=1622/1ou0itq/index.html (google translate should do a good job if you don't understand German..)
Basic income is bullshit that's getting loudly advocated from the top of society as a convenient way to tamper down social discontent while doing nothing about the unfair inequality at the root of many societies.
In the middle of Dallas is a small city never actually incorporated by the city called Highland Park. This is where George W. Bush and the upper middle class lives. The people who grow up in Highland Park will go to some of the best high schools in the nation. They'll be well trained and well prepared to go to colleges like Harvard and Princeton and Yale. These people end up running major corporations and dominating politics.
Meanwhile, if you drive ten miles south, you'll end up looking at public schools that look like prisons, that are desperately underfunded. These students, already having hard lives, will struggle to succeed, a large number will not graduate. There are no million dollar payouts or election victories for these people. They end up being the poor sods that the wealthy academics, politicians, and business people talk about when from their perch they are able to finally read about and observe human misery. But if you look at their actions, they will continue to take and take and take from these people. If not that, they benefit the most from talking about them.
Every city has a Highland Park (Detroit, certainly). Check out the people who run most major companies. They come from those places to a large extent. Name a major politician that doesn't have elite school roots. That's not to say these people are bad or evil, but if we're going to be serious about ending this charade of meritocracy, we've gotta stop rewarding that. Basic income is more of the same. It's bullshit that doesn't strike at the heart of the problem.
Netflix has a new series called Dirty Money. I thought the first episode about VW was pretty damn good, but the second is fascinating and sad. It's meritocracy in action. We have lots of practices in society which are business as usual which are basically scams. The poor are the most vulnerable to these scams.
https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/83?jbv=80118100&jbp=0&jbr=0
Why talk about basic income when we have glaring systematic flaws which can be solved without giving more power to that system?
I just watched Netflix's Dirty Money episode on HSBC. If you want to throw up in your mouth a little check it out and see how the Obama admin bent over backward to make sure they got a slap on the wrist for knowingly and purposefully laundering terror and drug cartel money for about a decade. Too big to jail is apparently very real.
I would suggest folks to watch netflix tv series “Dirty Money".
Hah, you're missing the point. The kind of men that pay for super-high-priced call girls are just as often looking for an educated, interesting woman to talk to as they are for sex. Lots of the "elite" call girls have higher degrees, for example, or are well-traveled.
I posted a Hulu link to the CNBC episode of "Dirty Money" where they talked about the high-end of the prostitution business. It's pretty eye-opening if you take the time to watch it.