Elaborate Scam
There is an interesting article in the September 17th issue of The New Yorker. The article was written by Mark Singer and details a minor British pianist from the 1950s who had a late-life renaissance and became the fancy of classical music world. There was only one problem, the renaissance was a scam orchestrated by the pianist's husband who copied existing piano works and credited the works to his wife. Eventually, like all frauds, the truth came to light, but not before many esteemed music critics fell for the bogus pianist. I relate this story because in due diligence much of the analysis is based on information provided by sponsors. If someone is going to cheat it is going to be hard, initially, to detect the scam. If the sponsor gets a following, which is likely as scam artists tell a good story and investment advisors and broker/dealers love a good story, which is easy to relate to clients during the sales process, the unraveling will cause pain for investors, advisors and broker/dealers.