An offshoot of the loosely-knit hacker group Anonymous on Monday launched a new project, “Anonymous Analytics,” which, according to its web site, aims to “provide the public with investigative reports exposing corrupt companies.”
“Our team includes analysts, forensic accountants, statisticians, computer experts, and lawyers from various jurisdictions and backgrounds,” a statement on the new site reads.
“All information presented in our reports is acquired through legal channels, fact-checked, and vetted thoroughly before release. This is both for the protection of our associates as well as groups/individuals who rely on our work.”
So far, the group has posted one document, a 39 page report alleging that the management of Chinese produce giant Chaoda Modern Agriculture have defrauded the company and its investors of $400 million dollars over an 11-year period.
While the extent of the allegation is pretty dramatic in of itself, the fact that Anonymous is accusing Chaoda of fraud is not earth-shattering in any sense. As The Wall Street Journal pointed out, the company had been under suspicion for some time, having been accused in May of overstating the size of its farmland.
And Chaoda is but one of several Chinese agro-giants (including Sino Forest and China Forestry) to have come under scrutiny for its financial practices recently. It had come under investigation by the Hong Kong government hours before Anonymous Analytics released its report. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
There’s no denying the Anonymous report is thorough and meticulous in its citation. The group points to a trail of online evidence linking Chaoda officials to domain names of apparently phony shell companies, which they purportedly used to bolster its brand name. Anonymous Analytics also accuses Chaoda of conning academics into agreeing to the company’s use of their likeness as company chair people and board members.
It also begins by noting that Anonymous Analytics “representatives” met with Chaoda officials “recently,” and came away from the company thinking that it was “either one of the greatest companies we had ever witnessed, or a largeâscale fraud.”
The website also includes an encrypted online “Dropbox” allowing anyone to upload evidence of corporate fraud, seemingly in the vein of the Wikileaks submission portal.
The Financial Times got in touch with someone claiming to represent Anonymous Analytics via the website’s email contact. The Anonymous spokesperson explained to the paper why the group had chosen Sino as its first target:
…there are several reasons we chose to start with China. First, there are an asymmetric number of frauds coming out of China. When you have a country that’s growing at a reported 10% clip, you’re also going to get a lot of easy-to-detect frauds. That’s just the nature of the beast.
Second, it’s an issue of money and resources. We don’t have enough of either to start attacking a major Western entity on an effective scale. So we have to start with smaller companies, gather enough resources and expertise, and slowly work our way up the food chain.
We would love to take down the next Madoff, but we have to make sure our reach doesn’t exceed our grasp.
The group also noted that the new project “was inspired by OpOccupyWallStreet and OpEmpireStateRebellion, Operations which other factions of anonymous have backed or promoted. Unfortunately picketing or rallies or threats can have a muted impact. But when you target a company’s share price, suddenly the message gets heard really quick. And it can be very effective.”
