tags:

• thesis/fraud
• sector/thesector
• analyst/Zatoichigo ...

I. Overview

More than a month ago, I posted an article here on Medium to disclose the fraudulent accounting activities committed by Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL), with the title of “Strategy of Fraudulent Accounting and Data Fabrication — — Isn’t It a Smart Move to Fight against Stressed Situation?” (accessible through the link https://medium.com/@zatoichigo/strategy-of-fraudulent-accounting-and-data-fabrication-isnt-it-a-smart-move-to-fight-against-34e8e5cf744d). WAL’s fraudulent activities included but were not limited to fraudulent fair value estimation of the loans transferred from held-for-investment (HFI) to held-for-sale (HFS), false statement on growth of core deposits, camouflaged figure of efficiency ratio, comparison with peer banks using distorted data, etc. I also highlighted that the lack of reaction from market regulators, specifically, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), may encourage such fraudulent accounting activities and consequently bring in negative effect to the integrity of financial market.