After sleeping on this all night let me clarify what I feel and why I broke my self-imposed promise to quit posting about BOFI.
I’ve been accused of believing all the things the shorts say and bringing half-truths and innuendos to the board. I’ve been accused of saying that BOFI has done all kinds of illegal things, and now that the ex-chief-auditor has done all sorts of illegal things. I did NO SUCH THING! I just think it makes sense to consider changing your mind about a stock in the face of new information. I’ve been accused of doing WRONG in doing so.
That last article by the shorts on Seeking Alpha brought out that Ball had worked for 20 years at a company where there was scandal, corruption, failure, officers indicted, etc. No one has disputed the truth of this. Ball apparently included it in his statement. He was not indicted. I’m not saying he did anything ILLEGAL.
I’m just saying he was chief-auditor there for many years and MISSED IT ALL. What the heck is a chief-auditor supposed to do anyway? Isn’t he, on some level, supposed to help protect the company from just this kind of thing happening?
To reward him for this splendid, sterling, performance, of auditing so well that he MISSED all that was going on for years, our company, BOFI, immediately hired him.
Out of all the auditors in the world they could have hired, they chose this one who had missed all sorts of internal corruption for years! One writer defending Bofi (maybe it was on the Bofi board) excused this because Ball was a buddy of the person who hired him because that person had also worked for that failed company.
I’m NOT saying that BOFI did anything ILLEGAL in hiring him.
I’m NOT even saying that BOFI did anything SUSPECT in hiring him.
I’d have to say though that BOFI did something that seems REALLY STUPID in hiring him. That seems like incredibly poor judgement. Do you want your chief-auditor, who presumably is there to protect the integrity of your bank, to be someone who missed all this illegality and corruption for years at another bank???
In fact, I’d have to say that BOFI did something that seems INSANE in hiring him.
Okay, now this same chief auditor suddenly RESIGNS at the same time a junior auditor brings all kinds of accusations of irregularity against the company. WHAT? What is going on. COINCIDENCE !?
And you want me to believe it when he says he’s resigning because of OVERWORK??? It just happens to be a series of coincidences? Just some mean old shorts?
Now I’m just one of those oddballs who thinks that you should change your mind about a company when there seems to be a good reason. That’s one of the basic principles I’ve tried to instill in this board - that there are always other good choices and you don’t have to stay with a bad one.
You can throw out all the other articles by the shorts. The material in this one, which I’ve described above, and which, as far as I know, no one is disputing the basic accuracy, would be enough for me to have severe doubts. Would I go out and buy shares in this company if I wasn’t in it? No way? Would I stay in it if I currently had a position in it? I don’t think so.
Do I rule out that this will all blow over and that Bofi will rise to new heights? Not at all. It’s probably more than 50-50 that they will. Do I want to take the chance? NO! There are lots of companies out there without all this hanging over them, which will also rise to new highs without this kind of danger. If you want to stay in it’s your business. I did want you to be aware of this new information which seemed to show incredibly poor judgement on BOFI’s part.
Best to you all!
Saul