So did Bear Stearn execs before it blew up from my reading knowledge... Culp wasn't in on it according to report, he's just a patsy playing dumb but there was one sneaky thing under his watch :
GE originally structured its disastrous 2017 investment in Baker Hughes, which combined the two company’s Oil and Gas businesses into a new entity, Baker Hughes, a GE Company (BHGE). GE held a 62.5% interest in BHGE and BHGE controlled the business. GE accounted for its holdings in BHGE as a Non-Controlling Interest, which was entirely consistent with the substance of the transaction and the nature of GE’s investment in the newly formed entity.
In November 2018, that accounting treatment changed when GE announced its plans to exit its investment in BHGE, and sold 101.2 million BHGE shares via a secondary offering, which left it with a 50.4% ownership interest. GE booked a $2.2 Billion pre-tax loss from that sale. GE improperly continued to account for its shares in BHGE as a Non-Controlling Interest in 2018, despite the fact that the substance of GE’s BHGE’s holdings was now strictly an investment, a clear violation of FASB Accounting Standards Codification 810-10-25-38A “Recognition – Variable Interest Entities” and FASB SFAC No. 8, BC3.26’s “Substance over Form” Concept. However, if GE had treated it as an Investment, as accounting rules require, it would have incurred a $9.1 billion loss. Maintaining a 50.4% interest (non-controlling interest threshold) in BHGE is a sham transaction with no business purpose done solely so that GE can create the false impression that GE has a reason to keep $9.1 billion in losses off of its books in 2018.
)
