#sigma also; [takes the longest possible time to actually leave]

[apoapsis]

@dimensionalspades said, 'i told you i'm all right. would you just leave?' [soldier]

                  He never knows what Jack wants– not really. 

Wherever there is a pull, SIGMA finds himself subsequently pushed back, as if Jack wasn’t quite certain as to whether or not he wanted to keep him at arm’s length or not. The way he seems to prefer napping and resting together, yet treats the moments of tenderness as if they were mere necessity rather than any particular desire for his presence. Most bizarrely, he does not know what to make of the way Jack tends to outright refuse any attempt made to directly comfort him. 

                   Even SIEBREN, despite his bristles and hostility, craves comfort, to a degree. 

That’s what makes it feel so jarring, when he expresses empathy and compassion only for Jack to snap at him in turn. It’s confusing and confrontative– as if he is doing something wrong.

                  How can he be doing it wrong?

It was the only thing he, intrinsically, knew how to do-- comfort others.

.... Had TALON finally taken that from him as well...?

That may be the one thing SIGMA could say that he objectively hates about Jack– the way he refuses to address his own hindrances even when they directly impact someone other than himself. It’s late when he finds himself disturbed from what had been a particularly restful slumber, abruptly displaced from the makeshift bed with a horse-like kick that feels very intentional in the moment. His large, willowy body slams a bit harshly on the loosely tiled floor of the little hideout, too disoriented to arrest his momentum via gravity. It was one thing to disturb him from his sleep– but to wake him so carelessly…? He’s furious. 

                 “-- God, do you fucking mind?” SIGMA snaps, though, upon seeing Jack’s tense expression as he attempts to use the bed to assist in picking himself up, some of the initial anger dissipates. Unlike SIEBREN, he just gets frustrated, rather than spiteful. “Er, s-sorry... are you… doing okay?” He’s too damn tired to deal with this, but he doesn’t like the way he keeps finding Jack in states like this. “... Jack. Are you listening to me…?” He’s looking right at him, but he won’t say anything. 

“-- Hello…?”

                 The astrophysicist dares to reach out in an attempt to touch his forearm– and only recoils in confusion when his hand is slapped away with an equally sharp ‘I’m fine’ from the soldier. That wasn’t… the appropriate response. He’s never received that kind of response before– from anyone, really! Especially when last time, Jack had appeared…. Much more receptive to his coaxing. 

What had changed…?

                  “-- Um,” He flusters a little, his palms cupping the edge of the makeshift mattress as he leans against the bed on sore knees. “-- y-you are certain…?” He wishes Jack would stop staring through him like that– as if he isn’t really there. “You… did eject me from your bed…! You know, if you wanted me to find somewhere else to sleep, simply say as much! There is no need to be so… rude about it– you said that I could spend the night–” 

Maybe he’s pushing his luck, judging by the frigid response he finally receives. 

                   ‘I told you I’m all right; would you just leave?’

Gloved digits anxiously drum against the mattress, SIGMA sitting in the frostbitten silence for several beats as he waits…. For something. What exactly? He doesn’t really know; regret, maybe…? Or, perhaps, a verbal reconsideration of his phrasing. When SIEBREN lashed out, there was always an additional spillage of sympathy and concern– so where is it now? Was that…. Not typical of these engagements?

                   … Whatever it is that he is waiting for, however, never quite seems to come.

The absence of which leaves him feeling worse; he really did want SIGMA to leave, didn’t he…?

                   “... Oh.” The utterance feels very flat, the astrophysicist visibly deflating as the realization appears to finally set in. “-- you... would like for me to leave.” He confirms softly. What is so painful about that? He feels small– insignificant. Jack didn’t want him around– did he mean permanently…? What had he done wrong? Why was Jack upset with him? "... I see."

“... I can... do that for you. Of course I can.” 

                  Swallow it down. It’s bitter, but still palatable.

Another uncomfortable pause as SIGMA casts a sidelong glance towards the door, not particularly wanting to move– yet gradually forcing himself to articulate, to rise to his feet and collect his holopad from where Jack often confiscated it to upon his visitations. “I’ll… be going then…?” It’s clear by the way he takes his time, the way he’s constantly glancing back towards the soldier, that he doesn’t really want to go, that he’s practically begging for Jack to at least indicate he did, in fact, want him to stay. “... Back home. Away from you– like you are requesting.”

                  The resulting silence that fills the spaces in between only serves to hurt him worse, evident in the way he’s practically slamming the door shut behind himself in his haste to remove himself from the premises. The cool night air is anything but refreshing in his exhaustion, SIGMA wanting nothing more than to go back inside and clamber back into Jack’s warm bed– but all he can do is quietly sigh and mentally prepare himself for the grueling trip back home.

[ranpoismyblorbo]

I posted 3,101 times in 2021

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For every post I created, I reblogged 19.7 posts.

I added 86 tags in 2021

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My Top Posts in 2021

#5

IwaOi BokuAka and KuroKen are very canon.

22 notes • Posted 2021-11-02 21:44:01 GMT

#4

✨YOU'LL NEVER TAKE US ALIVE✨

23 notes • Posted 2021-12-06 19:58:08 GMT

#3

OK IM GOING OFFLINE NOW THIS IS TOO MUCH WTF-

@akuutaguava @panic-at-the-gender @boombboi @glittercrashhh @chuuy-a and uhhh no I think that's everyone so um yea I'll continue the rb chains in a while/tomorrow sjdjfjrndj I'm tired and have a horrible headache✌️✌️

29 notes • Posted 2021-12-06 11:43:37 GMT

#2

SURVEY-ISH TIME!!!!

How many of y'all here are Sigma stans and willing to die for this man???

Say aye in reblog/comments

@boombboi @chuuy-a @akuutaguava @panic-at-the-gender @glittercrashhh @fyo-door this was more specifically targeted at y'all IM LEAVING NOW I SWEAR-

40 notes • Posted 2021-12-06 10:14:40 GMT

#1

CHAPTER 97 BSD MANGA SPOILERS

Aight so I was talking with a friend about how the whole escape thing is gone play out and she said that most likely both Fyodor and Dazai will miraculously survive and I was just like "yes but WHAT IF THE COST IS SIGMA'S LIFE HUH-" and she literally asked wHaT aRe yOu suGgEStiNg" and so I started aggressively theorising and the "say aye" post was a trap cuz imma tag y'all in this now (btw im just copy pasting from whatsapp rn so yea)

We haven't seen too many major deaths yet (except ofc yk but like....not MANY ) And there is a full possibility someone else will also die and the impact of Sigma's death would be pretty big psychologically for the ADA specifically Atsushi me thinks (because he couldn't save him not once but twice😀)

And also if Dazai ends up using Sigma's life in some way it would cause a pretty huge rift I think between him and Atsushi and possibly the rest of the ADA like they will still listen to his plans because yeah but they will also be distant and that would most definitely affect Dazai more than he would show and I feel like if he lost his friends in the ADA because of any reason specially if it's his own doing then he would slowly but surely start regressing to a pre development aka Port Mafia Dazai-ish state and just yeah that would be bad

Plus if Fyodor PLANNED to have Sigma die at that particular time his plans would already be in disarray but the death wouldn't affect them as bad but if he assumed Nikolai would have survived and saved Sigma then he had a job for both of them and Sigma's loss will definitely make him need to reroute (although I fully believe he has like AT LEAST 15 contingency plans incase a team member dies but still) and if Dazai figures out which one it is, if it's the latter I fully believe he can and he will use Sigma to get out and sacrifice him in the process (I mean I love the guy but he's highkey evil when it comes down to high stakes stuff)

ALSO, his (Sigma's) ability is an important one for an organisation that makes all its plans and executes them on the basis of the information it gets because Fukuchi might be the head but we all know that Fyodor is the one actually making the plans yes?? And Fyodor is a literal genius but even he needs the information required before making any plans. So yeah if Fyodor DIDN'T plan for him to actually die and Dazai figures it out Sigma is highkey a dead man walking.

And just yeah while his active contribution to the plot right now isn't that much, him dying during the escape which leads to the other two surviving it would make his part much greater overall plus it would deal psychological damage to the characters (and possibly general working damage to Fyodor) plus it would be a bittersweet thing about him never having truly existed and stuff as well because I can definitely see Asagiri pulling that card on us just so we sob some more😀😭

Anyways so yea that's that it's just a theory though so👀👀

Anyways for the tags now: @glittercrashhh @boombboi @akuutaguava @panic-at-the-gender @fyo-door @chuuy-a @saintsprotecttheghoul @sword-dad-fukuzawa @yukiko-otaku @flower-of-darkness @galacticfairytheweeb @dusted-star @lillybet-the-overlord @ficharsimp @thebgcharacter

And ofc honourable mentions to the one who led to all of this with the initial convo: @fruitpunchsamurai16

59 notes • Posted 2021-12-06 16:47:57 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[begedil]

Internship Tips & Advice

Alhamdulillah, finally found the time to sit and write. Been a crazy busy, super fun, extremely tiring, definitely rewarding 22-week internship experience for me and now I’m back at school. I’ve actually been wanting to pen this down for the longest time but man, working life is tough. It’s been full throttle since week 3 so alhamdulillah for the 6 days of leave. That being said, I know we all have things so I won’t beat around the bush. Here’s some tips and advice for my friends who already started their internships this semester.

Pre-internship (and it’s first few weeks):

-       Advice #1: Get a planner.

Things are going to get hectic and it’ll be (really) hard to rely solely on memory to know your upcoming events. Personally, I prefer planners with a monthly-view as it provides me with a better gauge of how much work is coming up and how busy I’m gonna be (also because I lack the discipline to fill up a daily/weekly calendar). To avoid getting overwhelmed, I don’t include work meetings in my planner, I only indicate the tasks I need to complete and things I have after work.

-       Advice #2: Work out your time ratio.

Figure out who and what you want to make time for. Yourself, your family, your friends, your hobbies – everything you hope to make time for during internship. Planning is one thing, whether you can do it is another. It’s okay if it changes throughout the internship. Never thought basketball would be one of the things I’d want to make time for but here I am. Use the first few weeks to find the right momentum and slowly work things out from there. You don’t have to figure it all out on the first try. It’s still a mystery to me how parents have the energy to do this whole work-life balance thing.

Throughout internship (the school side of things):

-       Advice #3: Logbook. Logbook. Logbook.

Pretty sure every school differs in their daily submission requirements but for my course (Mechanical Engineering) I have to submit a bi-weekly logbook detailing learning points and answers to specific questions. I didn’t think it would be such a burden but… boy was I wrong. I find it is so dreadful. Not because the questions are hard to answer, but because I keep forgetting to do it and end up trying to type as fast as I can before the Friday deadline. So please, don’t put yourself through what I did and set a reminder or block your calendar to complete it sometime during the week. Have your sticky notes open on your desktop and pen down points throughout the week so you don’t panic like I do when you have 5 hours left to submit it.

-       Advice #4: @ friends who are not on internship

Not gonna lie, the FOMO did kick in a few times. While many of my friends are in school going for lunch together, there I was trying to figure out why my vlookup formula isn’t working. I know the thought that I would not know anyone when I go back to school next semester seems absurd, but it does genuinely scare me sometimes (ESFJ much?). Luckily for me, being part of an adhoc helped make me feel like I’m not completely out of the loop and my (lovely) friends do check up on me or (try to) make dinner/weekend plans. Lunch too (and won’t let me PAY, if you’re reading this - may Allah bless you). So, if you have a friend going on internship next semester, please text them occasionally, I can promise you they’d be extremely grateful to know you still remember them. Advanced note: Expect late replies though, it’s not indicative of how thankful they are in having you check up on them.

Throughout internship (the work side of things):

-       Advice #5: Make full use of all the opportunities they provide employees.

Let me just get one thing out of the way first; Yes, interns are employees as well. In the MNC I work for, there are many sponsored certifications for employees to take up. Hopefully when you see me in school next year I am a certified yellow belt in Lean Six Sigma, insha Allah (if I ever find the time to complete the learning materials that’s been put on hold for 2 weeks now). Start making it a habit to ask questions – get your supervisor to teach you how to navigate a certain platform (to my engineering friends, SAP is more confusing than it sounds) or have them share their personal opinions on how a meeting went. It’s interesting to hear from someone who has been working there a lot longer than you have.

-       Advice #6: Get to know the different working styles you get along with.

Make use of this time to work with as many individuals as you can. You’ll be able to know more about your own tendencies and motivations as well as the working styles that you can (and cannot) click with. (You know those unpleasant group project experiences you’ve had in school? Yeah they happen in the workplace too, with adults.)

-       Advice #7: Be open about your workload.

I am so blessed to have the supervisor that I do. 70% of the good experience I’ve had thus far I owe it all to her. (The other 30% were the friends I made and the company benefits. I mean $30 bowling vouchers for $5? WHAT. A. DEAL.) One thing that has helped facilitate a good working relationship is open communication. Whenever she assigns me a task, I let her know what are the tasks that I currently have on hand (including school tasks such as logbook) and how early she can expect for me to complete the task. This way, my supervisor is constantly updated on my current workload and can better decide if more work should be assigned to me. I know how that may sound crazy (and scary) but really, sometimes with the amount of work they have to handle, supervisors can forget what they have assigned you. Trust me, it’s worse if you tank and end up having a backlog of tasks to complete.  

Throughout internship (the you side of things):

-       Advice #8: Don’t worry about your Zuhr and Asr’ prayers!

I’ve had my fair share of part-time jobs and I know this can be a worry sometimes. So, for anyone who may need the extra reassurance, don’t worry. Let colleagues know early on about having to go for prayers. Alhamdulillah my colleagues were really understanding of it, they even showed me where I could go to pray. My advice to you is to read the situation when you are informing them about having to go for prayers and if they look hesitant, let them know how short it’d probably take you. Most of the time, they are hesitant because they are overestimating the time it takes to pray and they are just worried that your work will be affected or that you won’t be there when they need you.

-       Advice #9: Remember that emails are not an easy feat.  

Another one of the small things I never thought could be so challenging. Being overwhelmed by emails is a real thing and please don’t let it happen to you. People send emails even after midnight (which also reminds me, please DO NOT bring work home unless absolutely and definitely necessary) and the rate that emails come in awaiting your reply, my friend, is a recipe for burn out. I mean people even block their calendars just to clear emails! Don’t try to reply them all in one go. Consider the subject and assess its urgency. Also, another tip, Outlook allows you to @ the one concerned/who needs to take action in your email. Based on my experience, that allows you to get faster replies from the relevant colleagues. May Allah ease your inbox, insha Allah.

-       Advice #10: Don’t limit yourself!

You are not “just” an intern. Really, this self-limiting mindset does more harm than good. If you tell yourself you are just an intern, then you’re likely to be treated as one – being assigned work that full timers do not want to do. I’ve heard so many stories from friends of how they had to overtime because they were overwhelmed with work. Speak up for yourself. It wasn’t easy gaining the trust, but by asking if I could take up a certain task or help out with one that was not originally assigned to me, my supervisors and colleagues very rarely give me admin work and trust me to handle bigger tasks. (Alhamdulillah!)

Be honest with yourself and ask yourself how you want your internship journey to be. This was my first ever internship experience (and quite possibly the only one before I venture out into the working world) so I really wanted to learn as much as I can and prove to myself that I am capable and ready. Hence, I hope that with the tips I shared here, I can help you achieve that too, insha Allah.

[mikemortgage]

Canada’s connection to Bernie Madoff continues through the courts a decade later

Bernard Madoff 10 years ago this week confessed to running a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of billions and billions of dollars. The wave of litigation that followed has still not completely receded, and at least one lawsuit has fallen into the Canadian court system.

Why this is the case is due to the usually sedate subject of auditing financial statements, in this case statements reviewed by a branch of PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the world’s largest professional services firms.

It was around 12 years ago that the manager of three offshore investment funds — Fairfield Sentry, Fairfield Sigma and Fairfield Lambda — turned to a Canadian arm of PwC to look over the funds’ financial statements, switching the task from a PwC office in the Netherlands.

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It should have been a relatively unremarkable move if not for one fatal fact. The funds, all incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, had assets worth billions of dollars, the bulk of which were ultimately invested with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS).

Madoff, of course, revealed his Ponzi scheme in 2008, rocking the financial world and sending his investors reeling, including the three Fairfield funds, which were placed into liquidation in the British Virgin Islands in 2009.

The funds and their liquidator launched a lawsuit against an Ontario limited liability partnership of the PwC network in 2012, and the matter had been winding its way through the province’s courts even since.

In the lawsuit, the funds and their liquidators alleged a breach of contract and negligence on the part of their auditor. The plaintiffs claimed that PwC should have discovered Madoff’s scheme when the funds’ financial statements were audited, and that because this didn’t happen, the funds continued to invest with Madoff and incurred damages.

PwC, though, has disputed the claims, arguing it is being taken to task “based on information only disclosed after Madoff’s admission of guilt and with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.” It also contended that the funds didn’t actually suffer any damage, since during the relevant period of time, they allegedly took more out of BLMIS than they put in.

Bernard Madoff walks out from Federal Court after a bail hearing in Manhattan Jan. 5, 2009. Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence as part of a multi-billion Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors.

A lower-court judge sided with PwC’s arguments in 2017 and dismissed the lawsuit. Ontario’s appeals court dismissed a challenge to the ruling this past August.

But in October, the liquidators made a push to take the case to the next level, filing an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In asking for the court’s permission to hear their case, the liquidators argued legal matters have been raised that are of “public importance,” such as what a party must do to put its “best foot forward” and keep a lawsuit from being thrown out on a summary judgment motion, which can see a case resolved without a full trial.

It could be that Canada’s highest court takes a pass (and most applications for leave to the Supreme Court are indeed dismissed), but one of the liquidators of the funds sees the lawsuit as trying to hold PwC accountable “for what we feel is basically a job that was not up to scratch,” Kenneth Krys said.

“The effort here is really to get money back in the hands of the people, the victims who suffered significant losses,” he said in an October interview.

If nothing else, the case has served to underscore just how much grief Madoff’s Ponzi scheme caused.

Though the application to the Supreme Court has yet to be dealt with, the particulars could be enough to stoke the interest of more than just legal buffs.

For one thing, is it possible that auditors in Canada could have caught Madoff’s fraudulent activity before it all came tumbling down? Was it their job to?

PwC certainly doesn’t believe so, arguing in its 2013 statement of defence and counterclaim (posted online, along with other legal documents, by the Fairfield funds’ liquidators) that, among other things, it was engaged “late in the day” for the audits.

“The fact that PwC did not discover the fraud which took place at a third party and not at PwC’s client does not mean that PwC was negligent or that it failed to meet the applicable audit standards,” the firm argued.

“Rather, it means that PwC was deceived by Madoff, like everyone else, including other professional accounting firms faced with similar audits.”

***

It was Dec. 10, 2008, when Bernie Madoff admitted to orchestrating “one of the largest and longest running ‘Ponzi’ schemes in history,” according to a decision by Ontario Superior Court Justice Frank Newbould.

Ponzi schemes take money from new and existing investors to fund withdrawals by and “profit” for other customers.

“Madoff never invested customer funds,” Newbould wrote in his June 2017 decision, which dismissed the Fairfield funds’ lawsuit. “Returns to investors were fictitious and the corresponding documentation fabricated.”

U.S. federal authorities arrested Madoff on Dec. 11, 2008, and he would be charged with 11 felony counts, including investment adviser fraud.

But until his fall, Madoff had been thought of as one of the more trustworthy people on Wall Street. His firm had been around for decades and he had even served as chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market.

“His reputation for honesty has to be the starting point of the story, because it was the quicksand into which all that followed sank,” said Diana Henriques, a financial journalist and author of The Wizard of Lies, which was recently adapted into an HBO movie.

“He was such a trusted and credible figure that there was a tendency to give him the benefit of the doubt in almost every circumstance.”

Fairfield Sentry was in deep with Madoff. It largely functioned as a “feeder fund” for him, and had invested around 95 per cent of its assets with his firm, or approximately US$7.2 billion.

The two other related funds audited by PwC, Fairfield Lambda and Fairfield Sigma, were essentially feeder funds for Sentry. They invested in Sentry, thus they were also invested in Madoff.

These funds were not investment opportunities for small-timers. Fairfield Sentry’s investors, for example, needed to have a minimum net worth of $1 million and make a minimum investment of $100,000. The investors also could not be citizens or residents of the United States.

But the funds were placed into liquidation shortly after Madoff pleaded guilty in March 2009 to the charges against him, “admitting that he had turned his wealth management business into the world’s largest Ponzi scheme,” the U.S. Department of Justice noted as recently as a Nov. 29, 2018, press release. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Efforts to claw back investor losses had already begun by then. As of Nov. 30, the trustee for the liquidation of Madoff’s firm said it had managed to recover, or reached agreements to recover, approximately US$13.3 billion for his former customers.

But the trustee’s efforts are not the only attempt to try to recoup the alleged cost of doing business with Madoff.

***

Where Canada enters the story of a New York-based fraudster doing business with funds based in the British Virgin Islands comes down to the auditing of financial statements.

“The (Fairfield) Liquidators allege PwC should have uncovered Madoff’s Ponzi scheme no later than April 24, 2007, when it delivered the Funds’ audited 2006 financial statements,” the Court of Appeal for Ontario noted in its August decision on the Fairfield funds’ case against PwC.

“Because PwC did not do so, the Funds remained invested in BLMIS, as a result of which they contend they suffered damages of approximately $2.5 billion.”

PwC, however, has denied the funds sustained any damage at all around the time of their audits, and claimed that the Fairfield funds actually withdrew around a billion dollars more from Madoff’s firm than they invested in the time between the first audit to when Madoff’s scheme collapsed.

Complicating matters is that the arguments over determining how much (if any) damage was done also involve a settlement struck between the funds and the liquidator of Madoff’s firm, which had been trying to recover money from Fairfield Sentry, among others.

A settlement was struck between the Madoff trustee and the Fairfield funds’ liquidator to try to resolve the situation. This truce included judgments that were entered against the three Fairfield funds in the U.S., the impact of which has been fought over by the funds and PwC in the Ontario courts.

Bernard Madoff New York Mets baseball jacket is displayed during a press preview of a U.S. Marshals Service auction of personal property seized from Bernard and Ruth Madoff Nov.13, 2009 in New York City.

Justice Newbould granted the motion for summary judgment of the lawsuit in 2017, a decision that dismissed the Fairfield funds’ case (and which was later upheld by the Ontario appeals court).

In doing so, Newbould found “that the Liquidators have not established any damages and that there is no genuine issue regarding damages that requires a trial.”

But the Canadian angle to Madoff’s scheme is not just confined to the courts.

After Madoff confessed, two Fairfield Sentry shareholders complained about the auditing of the fund to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (the then-governing body of chartered accountants in Ontario, which has since been merged into what is now the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario) in June and October of 2009.

In October 2012, following an investigation, a professional conduct committee made two allegations of professional misconduct against Stephen Wall, a partner at PwC. Wall is also named in the Fairfield lawsuit, and, along with PwC, is a respondent in the appeal to the Supreme Court.

According to the resulting tribunal, the audits done by PwC for 2006 and 2007 had been under the direction and supervision of Wall.

A disciplinary panel found Wall, who denied the allegations, guilty of professional misconduct in 2017. Wall has launched an appeal of the matter.

“The ultimate determination the panel had to make was whether or not Mr. Wall complied with the applicable auditing standards when he accepted the information (confirmations) provided by Bernard L. Madoff Securities Limited, LLC (‘BLMIS’) about the assets of and income for Fairfield Sentry Limited (‘Fairfield Sentry’) for the years ended December 31, 2006, and December 31, 2007,” the panel’s decision said.

“The panel concluded that he failed to comply with the applicable auditing standards, i.e. United States Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (US GAAS) and as a result there was an audit failure.”

Although the professional conduct committee had accepted that “neither Mr. Wall nor anyone at PwC knew about the Madoff fraud or participated in any way in the fraud” — and the decision noted that the applicable auditing standard “does not require an auditor to find fraud, if there is fraud” — the panel’s decision also said Wall “accepted representations from (Madoff’s firm, BLMIS) without any evidence that the information provided by BLMIS was reliable.”

In other words, it added, “Basically, all Fairfield Sentry had was what BLMIS said it had.”

***

Stephen Wall’s appeal of the CPAO matter is ongoing. A representative from the CPAO said in an email that there is another date set for deliberations on Jan. 8.

The panel’s decision also noted that “issues of negligence or breach of contract and liability, if any, for the losses suffered by the investors (shareholders) of Fairfield Sentry is a matter for the courts, not the Discipline Committee, a professional discipline tribunal.”

A decision on whether or not the Supreme Court will hear the case of the Fairfield funds and liquidators is still to come.

Canada’s highest court is not being asked to judge Bernie Madoff. Instead, it is being asked to weigh in on the state of summary judgments.

This area of law was affected by a landmark decision nearly five years ago, in a case known as Hryniak v Mauldin, wherein a Supreme Court decision said summary judgment motions “must be granted whenever there is no genuine issue requiring a trial.”

But the Fairfield funds now claim that lower-court decisions have shown the use of summary judgment “has gotten out of hand.”

Krys said they are not expecting to hear back from the Supreme Court until the beginning of 2019. The liquidators also launched a lawsuit against PwC in the Netherlands, which has been dismissed for different reasons, he said in an email, adding that decision is being appealed as well.

PwC, meanwhile, previously came to terms with Fairfield investors in the U.S. “to settle claims it failed to audit properly the books of Fairfield Greenwich Group,” the firm that launched Fairfield Sentry approximately 28 years ago, Reuters reported in January 2016. PwC “denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle,” and the settlement reportedly resolved investor claims against Canadian and Dutch arms of PwC.

In a written response to questions from the Financial Post, PwC said it agreed with the decisions of the Ontario courts and is contesting the liquidators’ application to the Supreme Court, as it believes the case does not raise any issues of broad public or national importance.

“All other actions naming the Canadian firm have either been dismissed or resolved,” PwC added, “and no other government or regulatory authority with jurisdiction over the Madoff fraud has alleged that our work was not performed in accordance with applicable rules and audit standards.”

PwC said it is not a party to the CPAO matter — a civil proceeding that, according to the decision, hinges on the “balance of probabilities, i.e., that on the evidence it is more likely than not that the particulars of the Allegations made are true” — but said it believes that its audit team’s work fully complied with professional standards.

The firm added that because the matter is still before the courts and the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario, both it and Wall (whom PwC said “is a senior and respected partner in our Assurance practice, and has been so throughout the course of this matter”) are limited in what they can publicly state. Attempts to question Wall were answered by PwC’s general counsel.

Furthermore, in a November reply to the Fairfield funds’ application the Supreme Court, PwC alleged it was “incontrovertible that the Fairfield Funds did not put their best foot forward and that the findings of the lower courts are fully supported by the evidence.”

But the Fairfield funds’ liquidators have warned of a “perverse scenario” of parties having to engage in an endless back-and-forth with their evidence on a summary judgment motion.

Krys claimed it is unlikely PwC wants a full airing of the lawsuit. (Justice Newbould also wrote that a trial on the issue of the auditor’s alleged negligence “would no doubt be long and expensive.”)

“If they can get this kicked out … on the basis that there are no damages, then this will solve their problem for them,” Krys said. “And the question of whether they were negligent or not will never see the light of day.”

• Email: gzochodne@nationalpost.com | Twitter: GeoffZochodne

from Financial Post https://ift.tt/2PAPEV0 via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

[gavinbowman]

With the Switch arriving, I’ve been trying to clear out some of my in-progress games to make room for zelda. And also because it sucks when you’ve been playing a few different things and taken an extended break and feel kind of detached from them. I didn’t want to abandon them or leave them hanging for months. So here’s a round up of my recent plays.

Fire Emblem Heroes - iOS Played all the current content, countless hours

This was a good one for me when I was waiting around for baby stuff, I could pay attention to other things and even play one handed. I’m conflicted on it, because I had a lot of fun with it, it didn’t cost me anything, and yet I find myself at the end wishing I’d bought Fire Emblem Fates for the 3DS and played that instead. But a lot of the time I spent playing this I probably didn’t have my 3DS handy, so it’s probably moot.

This is a F2P game, but it’s crazy generous. There’s a lot of content to play through, and you get a lot of free premium currency just for playing each day and for completing the content and the various quests. The main use for the premium currency is the gatcha “spins” to get new characters. 4 and 5 star characters have additional moves and skills that are helpful when you get to the higher end content, and you have to get lucky with a summoning to get them. There is a path to upgrade lower level characters, but it requires a lot of a very scarce currency.

I would have liked to have been able to buy a round of character summons for a reasonable fee... that probably would have wound up costing me a lot though. As it is, it costs about $13 for a set. And you can get a set most days you play if you’re playing the earlier content and charging through it at a fair clip. It gets much harder to save up for a set of characters towards the end, the challenge gets higher faster than your characters level up, and you tend to get stuck with a fixed roster of valid characters because leveling up a second set to the point where they’re useful is a big time investment.

There’s two areas where I really enjoyed the game the most. Leveling from 1->20ish, either in missions while I had them available, or in the duels or training rooms. You gain skills and your character grows regularly, it’s a rewarding time. The second was in the high level maps, either the main story or bonus/special content. It was fun trying to find a way to beat the scenario with what I had. And it wasn’t possible to just grind up a couple of levels and stomp all over it, and it wasn’t trivial to try to bring in a ringer who would be better suited to the map. That was some fun stuff.

Although I’m done with the game, I’m not really done with it, I’m still playing the various challenge stuff and popping in for rewards, I’m still excited when I get saved up for a round of summons... but it’s definitely on the down low unless there’s a significant amount of new content. I’m excited to see how the new inherit ability feature works in the coming update, I imagine it’ll require some scarce currencies, for fear of being over used, but it could definitely open up new strategies and options.

Super Mario Run - iOS Finished main game to purple level and bonus levels

This was a fun one for me. It was great having a one handed mario game, great having mario on my phone, and I liked the game plenty. Sure, it’s not as good as a full mario game. And I could see why some people would complain about the amount of content available. If you don’t make any effort to play for the coin challenges, you’d probably blitz through it in 1-2 hours.

I played a bit of the toad rally thing early on so I could unlock the extra characters. It was sort of fun, but it definitely lacked something and the economy was all over the place. I’m sure it was the beginnings of a f2p concept that just didn’t come together or got shifted over to a premium feature early on. Although rally tickets are kind of scarce to begin with, once you play a little bit, they become too plentiful if anything, I usually had the maximum amount, and had bonuses in my kingdom that would more than restock any amount I could use. I think they rebalanced it,  but early on I felt like the amount of toads you’d lose when you lost was way too high, it was hard for me to build up a little stockpile of any without grinding on similar levels I knew well enough to win most of the time.

Anyway, was good fun for what it was, I have no regrets about buying it or spending time playing it. I’m not doing the black coin challenges though, those feel way too much like work.

Mighty Switch Force - 3DS Finished main story & bonus levels - ~7hrs

I kinda fucking hate this game. Bear with me. It’s good, I had fun with it. But fuck, my lasting association with it is not pleasant. It’s one of those games where the initial impression is really strong, and the core mechanics feel great and are interesting, but as you progress through the game it goes in a direction that just makes each level progressively less fun. The fun chunky run and jump and shooty stuff gives way to levels that feel more like puzzle based versions of donkey kong country barrel sequences. It’s still kind of fun for the most part, but there’s a lot of stuff where you’re just killed and then have to remember the sequence next time... it just doesn’t feel as fun as the early levels promised. It’s mostly still okay though, because the levels are maybe 3-5 minutes long (target times, not counting multiple retries and longer times to grok the lay of the level at first), and if they’re big levels, there’s a lot of boosty things to cover large distances quickly. And then you get to the last level. And then it goes from fun shooty platformer that gradually changed into less fun puzzle and timing based platformer, into full on rhythm action puzzle platformer. And the level length increases. And the difficulty increases. So you’re stuck playing with this new mechanic in the hardest and longest level of the game. It left a really bad taste for me anyway. After I finished it, I played the first of the bonus levels, and it was like the early levels, so that left me feeling a bit better about it. And then I played the 2nd one and it moved significantly towards the puzzle things I hadn’t really enjoyed. And yeah, the 5 bonus levels basically play like a greatest hits accelerated evolution of the game mechanics from fun -> fuck you. So yeah, I kept playing the bonus levels so I could hopefully leave the game with a more positive impression, but instead they made me relive the whole journey of gradual disapproval all over again in a condensed way. 

The ironic thing is, I can totally imagine being in the design meetings that made the game this way and totally approving of all the choices, because they increase the depth and variety and force the player’s mastery, and therefore presumably sense of achievement, to improve to progress, and yet here I am hating it all. Was interesting for me anyway. The main thing I’d definitely change is the rhythm action bit on the last level. I get why it feels good and import though. Maybe put it on a shorter level. Or increase health drops, or just save it for a post game challenge room kinda deal or something. Even if the bonus level version of the rhythm mechanic was the final level, I’d have been less down on it, because it’s a shorter level. It’s still hard and frustrating, but in a more manageable quantity. Anyway. Good game. I kinda hate it.

Megaman X - SNES via Wii U VC Finished main story ~12hrs

Really bummed that I had to take a break from this at the point where I did, I was some random distance into sigma’s fortress when I stopped and I forgot what all the weapons and upgrades did by the time I started back.

I was playing this to get a good sense of where things went in this franchise, I really enjoyed Megaman 2 recently, and this felt like the obvious one to play next. I love most of the changes and evolutions. The bigger spaces worked out nice. I don’t know if the slowdown is all just preserved from the original, but damn, that was intense.

Main differences I noticed, side upgrades were handed out as more of a big deal, rather than just a random bonus after some of the levels. There were more permanent upgrades. The main upgrades from the bosses were a lot more effectively balanced. There was way more of a sense of an order to the boss fights, I bounced out of 3 or 4 before I actually managed to complete one and start to make progress. I liked that. Mid level checkpoints were less well placed than the NES game. There were a few places where I could have really done with not having to play some stupid challenging section again before the next stupid challenging section. I confess I used save states to make it though this game. I doubt I could have done it today otherwise, not without a major time investment. At that point I’d probably have been better off watching a speed run on youtube.

Oh, and I really liked the way the energy tank mechanic worked here, once I realized how to use it. It’s basically like finding zelda bottles, except they automatically fill up when you collect excess energy, and they don’t kick in automatically when you’re about to die, you have to watch your energy and use them yourself. I thought it was great.

I guess “now fight all the bosses again” is an established megaman trope... and I actually was okay with how it was implemented here. Checkpoints were a bit more frequent than I remember from megaman 2, and the bosses were spread out over a few tiny levels rather than just all packed into a room.

The final boss was very challenging, again I doubt I could have made it through this game today without save states, at least not with any hair still intact and without it consuming my life for months on end.

My ideal Megaman so far would definitely fall somewhere between this and the NES versions... but after having to drop this mid-way, I’d probably have to play both again to settle on exactly where.

Land’s End - Gear VR Played story mode - Maybe 1hr actual game time? Hard to say because of all the time I spent updating my android phone, or charging it, or waiting for it to cool down enough so I could keep playing, or taking a break because my head hurt. Even if it was around or under 1hr, it was enough.

I’ve been trying to play this one for ages. Since the Gear VR was the only VR headset in the house. It’s probably fair to say that I’ve had a samsung phone and a headset sitting on or around my desk for over a year because I wanted to play this.

And it’s fun, I liked it a lot. It’s a shame it hasn’t been reworked for higher end headsets... but I can understand why it hasn’t. It’s fully designed around gazing, there’s no other inputs, so once you put it on a higher end device with more complex input systems, it’s going to feel a bit restrictive. It’s not like it wouldn’t still be fun, but you’d have that weird feeling of having a controller or hands of some kind that don’t do anything.

But it looks lovely, and it’s a shame that experiencing it on the Gear VR with it’s low res screen and no head tracking etc is the only way to enjoy it. The puzzles are fun, if it’s not pushing the limits of the device it looks like it should be (great design, it’s low poly and low detail and it really nails the aesthetic). There’s a great sense of space and discovery as the levels open up around you, or when you enter some space that you didn’t see a few steps earlier and there’s a whole new room or area.

It’s very short. But that’s good. You get to enjoy something wonderful, but you don’t have to spend a lot of time using the Gear VR to do it. I need to spend more time playing VR games this year. I bought the PSVR specifically with the hope of doing that, but it hasn’t panned out so much so far. I really want to play more of Eagle Flight, I love what I’ve played so far.

Anyway, that’s me all caught up. Sorry to spam 5 games into one post, I’m not sure I even played 5 games last year... but I’m hoping this will free me up to play more zelda and start some new stuff.