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Posted by: ExmoDad ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 10:44AM

It's a SLC based company.

Are they Mormons?


Overstock.com
Headquarters: Salt Lake City, UT
Year Started: 1999
Revenue in 1999: $1,835,000
Revenue in 2010: $1,089,873,000
Number of Products on Site: 960,000
Number of Employees: 1,500

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Posted by: ExmoDad ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 11:13AM

A bit of googling yielded that for some reason, the company CEO is referred to as a "nutjob" by various bloggers, who claim the company is under SEC investigation, a lawsuit by California prosecutors because of its anti-consumer practices

"AMONG THE COMPANY'S MOST FERVENT SUPPORTERS WAS OVERSTOCK.COM'S NUTTY CEO PATRICK BYRNE, WHO CALLED THE COMPANY "AWESOME" AND WAS A MAJOR SUPPORTER OF SAUNDERS, AT ONE TIME HOLDING UP A SIGN WITH THE URL OF SAUNDERS' NOVASTAR-BOOSTING WEBSITE IN A CNBC APPEARANCE. AFTER THAT HAPPENED, BYRNE WAS BANNED FROM CNBC."

(see link: HTTP://GARYWEISS.BLOGSPOT.COM/2011/05/NOVASTAR-AND-OVERSTOCK-IN-NEWS.HTML)

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Posted by: ExmoDad ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 11:20AM

While it's not clear if the CEO is a Morgbot or not, apparently the Prez is likely (with a BA and law degrees from YBU).

One blogger says he's been caught lying...(see http://whitecollarfraud.blogspot.com/2008/04/overstockcom-svp-jonathan-e-johnson.html)

Why did this not seem hard to believe? Mormonism is basically in itself a lie, and those who are adherents become adept at lying, unfortunately, many of them unwittingly or unknowingly.
But I mostly want to draw your attention to the very last sentence of this blogger's post, which is what I feel is what makes Mormonism especially despicable, "the coverup" by the GAs et al.


WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2008

"Overstock.com SVP Jonathan E. Johnson caught lying in frantic attempt at damage control

"In the process of attempting to defend Overstock.com's illegal stock market manipulation, Jonathan E. Johnson III (Senior Vice President - Corporate Affairs & Legal) made up new lies and created even more SEC Rule 10b-5 problems for the company. Overstock.com is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and its CEO Patrick Byrne has admitted to being the target of the SEC probe.

"In my previous blog post, one issue of many issues that I detailed was how Overstock.com’s recent Q1 2008 earnings report failed to disclose that the company compared Q1 2008 revenues reported on a GAAP basis to Q1 2007 revenues that were reported on a non-GAAP basis in violation of Statement of Accounting Standards No. 154. However, Jonathan Johnson apparently lied to Betsy Schiffman from Wired.com, by claiming that Overstock.com reported its Q1 2007 revenues in compliance with GAAP (no surprise).

"According to the Wired.com article: "In its earnings release, Overstock.com failed to disclose that it compared first-quarter 2008 revenues reported on a GAAP basis to first-quarter 2007 revenues that were reported on a non-GAAP basis," Antar wrote on his White Collar Fraud blog.
For those who don't speak accountantese, "non-GAAP" basically refers to non-standard accounting practices, and the difference between GAAP and non-GAAP numbers is often substantial.
Note: Bold print and italics added by me.

"As detailed above, Jonathan E. Johnson claimed that both Q1 2008 and Q1 2007 revenues in Overstock.com’s Q1 2008 earnings release were reported in accordance with GAAP. However, Jonathan E. Johnson was present during the Q4 2007 earnings call when Patrick Byrne made the surprise announcement that Overstock.com’s revenues and other related items were deliberately not reported in compliance with GAAP and the company's revenue recognition disclosures, which is a violation of SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 99. In addition, Overstock.com’s Q4 2007 8-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, clearly contradicts Jonathan E. Johnson’s claim to Wired.com regarding Q1 2008 and Q1 2007 revenues that “They’re both GAAP numbers….”

From the company’s inception through the third quarter of 2007, we have recorded revenue based on product ship date. In the fourth quarter of 2007, in response to an accounting comment from the staff of the SEC, we retrospectively changed our policy to recognize revenue based on estimated product delivery date. We have recorded the cumulative effect of this change in the fourth quarter of 2007.Note: Bold print and italics added by me."

"Since Overstock.com failed to restate revenues through Q3 2007, how could Q1 2007 revenues be reported in compliance with GAAP when such revenues were compared to Q1 2008 in the company's earnings release? Jonathan E. Johnson’s false statement, above, creates even more legal problems for Overstock.com with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rule 10b-5 expressly makes it “unlawful for any person….to make any untrue statement of a material fact.”

"Question for Jonathan E. Johnson: If you can't read my blog since you falsely claim that it's rife with "lies" - then who exactly at Overstock.com is reading my blog? My log reports 394 visits and counting to my blog from people working for Overstock.com."

"Message to Jonanthan E. Johnson from a convicted felon: The cover up is often worse than the crime."

The GAs at the top most certainly know Mormonism is based on a fraud, but continually cover it up, and expect all members to do the same. This to me is just as bad as creating the fraud itself.

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Posted by: GNPE ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 11:47AM

(not defending them)

Does Ovrstock- as a mail-order business- have to record sales according to when deliveries are 'expected' to meet GAAP guidelines?

Then attempting to restate figures back-dating ... OUCH!

I certainly don't know if Fraud was involved..but Id hate to see a CPA-Only jury panel!

IOW seems pretty esoteric.

3 types of falsehoods:

-lies

-Damnned Lies

- accounting

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Posted by: ExmoDad ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 12:39PM

I was just curious initially. And don't necessarily think this co. is guilty of massive fraud or anything. But while researching it, struck me how the coverups are the key to many frauds being perpetuated, similar to Mormonism. I don't know either of these guys but it seems that they've managed to annoy or tick off a couple of bloggers. Is it because of their dishonesty? Or are they just annoying.

Not sure.

On a much more relevant note, if any of the GA's came clean and said, "Look, JS did not discover golden plates and translate them..." they would be out of a job, perks and salary.

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Posted by: sbg ( )
Date: August 17, 2018 01:00PM

The issue is they did not disclose the comparative revenue was recorded using different methods. Big no no in SEC reporting.

When you sign the 8-K you are stating that everything contained in it is factual. If you lie about it, which it appears they did, then you are in violation of SEC regulations.

All of these laws we tightened after SOX came into being.

All they had to point out was that one year was per GAAP and the other was not. Or issue restated financials explaining the transition to GAAP and use those.

You can't use different methods of revenue recognition and claim they are the same.

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Posted by: The Motrix ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 12:58PM

I worked there for many years.

Patrick Byrne is not Mormon, he's the chairman and CEO. He was raised Catholic back east and got his money from serious family connections with Warren Buffett where Patrick's father was head of Geico for Buffett. He took over the company in a hostile takeover, no matter what they say, the original business model was someone else's idea and he was an early investor.

Jonathan Johnson, the current president of the company, is LDS, garment wearing and the whole bit. He was trained as lawyer and got the company out of trouble many times with his dishonest and slimy tactics when he worked as Overstock's corporate counsel. I'm pretty sure Johnson is one who plays along with Mormonism to get all the benefits, just like the Ponzi scheme stake presidents dotted around the country and the general authorities downtown. He is a BYU law school grad (that puts him in line to be a GA).

During one company party, Johnson was working a piñata, he swung it out of the way, swung it back around, hitting the blindfolded person hard in the back of the head. He then laughed loudly, "That's how we Mormon's do it! Don't EVER trust a Mormon." It seemed a pretty accurate saying.

Byrne panders, at least emotionally, to the Mormons. Talking about how great they are, etc. But, I'm pretty sure he doesn't believe it, but Mormons love to be praised so it works well for him. In my experience, Byrne is not much of business person. He loves fast cars, women, and very hard partying. He walks around in a fog most of the time, not knowing anything about the company or life in general. It always surprises me how they can prop Patrick up in front of a television camera and he suddenly isn’t the “Bill and Ted” doper any more. It’s very surreal.

If it weren't for his trusted lieutenants, many of them cutthroat Mormons, the business would have dried up long ago.

I have a lot of scary stories to tell from that place. But, if you're looking for something to buy it's not a bad place to shop.

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Posted by: xtbm ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 01:37PM

xtbm@yahoo.com

I work here in Utah and I've had someone recruiting me to come work at Overstock. I'd be interested in learning more about the culture, how long ago you worked there, etc. Send me an email if you're willing to talk about it.

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Posted by: GNPE ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 01:38PM

O U TEASE!

Let's start out with Just One!

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Posted by: spooge ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 03:17PM

Are they still trying to sell off all of Vivid Entertainment's excess VHS porn inventory? That was pretty funny to see on their catalog not too long ago.

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Posted by: spooge ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 03:24PM

They have several billboards up along I-15 so they can hire the cream of the crop developers from UTC to help them sell this:

http://www.overstock.com/search?keywords=sex&taxonomy=cat2774&searchtype=Header

I find it (and them) quite laughable. I wonder if all their brilliant minds will get together at lunch and shoot the shit about how Jimmer faired in the draft while updating web pages for fulfillment of orders for Kama Sutra On Ice?

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Posted by: imalive ( )
Date: June 26, 2011 03:37PM

I've always been wary of ordering from Overstock. After reading this stuff, I'm glad I never did.

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Posted by: Ex-Overstock ( )
Date: July 04, 2011 12:12PM

His hatchet man Judd Bagley is a Mormon.
http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/search/label/Judd%20Bagley

ExmoDad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's a SLC based company.
>
> Are they Mormons?
>
>
> Overstock.com
> Headquarters: Salt Lake City, UT
> Year Started: 1999
> Revenue in 1999: $1,835,000
> Revenue in 2010: $1,089,873,000
> Number of Products on Site: 960,000
> Number of Employees: 1,500

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