Waste Management executives inflated profits through depreciation and reserve tricks
Waste Management, Inc. · Waste services (listed)
The case in brief
Visible before detection
Checks that could have surfaced it, on hindsight
Books edit log
Would have shown top-side entries that netted costs against gains.
Can mislead when: Logs can be disabled at database level (auditors qualified this in year one) or tampered with on export. Kubr needs the company to cooperate.
Unit economics & burn
Would have compared depreciation lives and margins with peers.
Can mislead when: Cost allocation is a judgement call. Kubr shows its assumptions and lets the user change them.
Operating-metric verification
Would have tested asset lives against the real fleet.
Can mislead when: Contract staff do not appear in EPFO. Vahan access needs licensed APIs. Some businesses have no physical trace.
Where Kubr services would have helped
Financial diligence
Offered in India- C9 Would have compared depreciation lives and margins with peers.
- C10 Would have tested asset lives against the real fleet.
- C12 Would have shown top-side entries that netted costs against gains.
Valuation context
Offered in India- C9 Would have compared depreciation lives and margins with peers.
Model check
Offered in India- C9 Would have compared depreciation lives and margins with peers.
- C10 Would have tested asset lives against the real fleet.
Portfolio monitor
Offered in India- C10 Would have tested asset lives against the real fleet.
Mapped from the checks each service runs. A hindsight reading of public records, not a promise that the failure would have been found.
Same pattern
A summary of public documents. It reports what the sources say. It is not Kubr's finding and not a statement of guilt.