Callouts & quotes from 104+ activist slides

"In late 2011, fraud researcher Jon Carnes, who has among the best track records in the industry in identifying irregularities with China-based companies, issued a report on Silvercorp that alleged, among other things: The company’s technical reports were based on a 2-man team that used resource estimates provided by Silvercorp and who hadn’t visited the site in years. The quality and resource estimates of its mines were overstated. That a related-party transaction had enriched a relative of CEO Rui Feng."

"The Company did not maintain adequate documentation to support the proper accounting for inventory movements related to phone shipments for refitting and refurbishment. Consequently, the Company overstated inventory or receivables by not maintaining adequate documentation of track phones provided to outside services providers. As a result of this material weakness, an adjustment was necessary to properly record costs of goods sold and amounts due from vendors — 10K/A states"

"MagnaChip recognized revenue on sales of incomplete or unshipped products...and delayed booking obsolete or aged inventory to manipulate its gross margin. The SEC detailed how Magnachip “overstated revenue for nearly two years in response to immense pressure...each quarter to meet revenue and gross margin targets that had been communicated to the public...a panopy of accounting tricks to artificially meet financial targets.” — SEC press release, May 2017"

"MagnaChip recognized revenue on sales of incomplete or unshipped products...and delayed booking obsolete or aged inventory to manipulate its gross margin. The SEC detailed how Magnachip “overstated revenue for nearly two years in response to immense pressure...each quarter to meet revenue and gross margin targets that had been communicated to the public...a panoply of accounting tricks to artificially meet financial targets.” — SEC"

""Then we realized that the numbers were overstated in several markets by 15% to 20%." It turned out that some florists who were transferring orders to other shops had reported total sales, and not just their commissions, as revenue. -- Greg Royer, Director. "There was a huge Bermuda Triangle between corporate management and the mom-and-pop retailers who didn't know what P&L; and EBITDA are." -- Karen Akin, Apples to Zinnias."

"According to Confidential Witness No. 1, a number of high-ranking Amdocs employees in the United States and Israel--including Gelman and Daunov, Division Presidents Shaul Ganel and Dani Keret, Division Vice President Richard Norris, and Vice President of Sales, North America, Joshua Behar--were involved in a scheme to overstate Amdocs' backlog by 30-50%, with successive quarters increasingly overstated."

"widespread accounting violations — SEC. "pushed employees to maximize end-of-quarter revenue, yet failed to devise and maintain sufficient internal accounting controls to accurately record revenue." — SEC. "improperly under-reported certain expenses" — SEC. "engaged in two additional practices over the course of several years that systemically overstated inventory and understated expenses." — SEC."

"If we adjust Amdocs' EPS for its percentage-of-completion items and 75% of newly-capitalized software, on the assumption that 75% of the change in the unamortized software account represents capitalized costs – we observe that Amdocs EPS could have been overstated by up to 15% if the observed percentage-of-completion items represent improperly pulled-forward sales."

"Procept’s “utilization” definition is handpieces “purchased”, not handpieces “used”. If handpieces “purchased” overstates known US procedures (as the Company’s proxy disclosure suggests), and if rising DSOs are indicative of hospitals ordering more handpieces than they need, then not only is Procept’s “utilization” metric overstated, it might even be meaningless."

"This anomaly raises a number of questions, not least as to what is the true value of the assets? Why would MTN sell AMT 51% of the assets for just 42% of the value, it does not appear that they were desperate to do so as there would have been other bidders? Could this mean that the assets are overstated?"

"When we adjust Samsara's Adj. EBITDA calculation for incremental device cost and sales commission amortization, we estimate it to be overstated by $134 million in the past two fiscal years and that FY2023 adjusted EBITDA margin stands at -22% as opposed to the -10% reported by the Company."

"Given that Kangmei’s ex-Chairman was sentenced to 12 years in prison and the company allegedly overstated its cash balance by $4.3B “using false documents,” we were further stunned to see a 2017 press release from Twist stating that Kangmei Group was actually an investor in the company."

"Spruce Point observes a concerted effort by Avery over the years to provide less and less disclosure to investors. Notably, we see omission of six (6) key disclosures that directly affect revenue drivers. We believe this bolsters our concern that organic revenues may be overstated."

"We immediately encountered articles discussing GF Securities involvement in a $12.7B fraud in China, centered on one of China’s largest publicly traded pharmaceutical firms, Kangmei Pharmaceutical, which allegedly overstated its cash balance by $4.3 billion “using false documents.”"

"In our opinion, MAXR’s 2018 Adj. EPS expectation of $4.75/sh is pure fiction. The Company has made numerous aggressive accounting choices that inflate its Non-IFRS results. Based on our forensic review, we estimate EBITDA and EPS are overstated by 17% and 79%, respectively"

"After we make this final adjustment to the 223 million Rmb deferred revenue balance from before, we get 156 million Rmb of deferred revenue at fair value—or, just $24 million. Based on the calculations we made, TAL overstated Firstleap’s deferred revenue by 90%."

"In addition, the Company improperly accounted for other items that overstated net income, including the estimation and recording of self-insurance reserves, its recognition of equipment rental revenues, and its income tax accounting. — SEC URI Complaint 2008"

"10. Aside from its “customers” being related parties and effectively fake, we believe that Ginkgo takes the scam into even more aggressive territory by booking revenue from them that is simply fictitious, overstated, and/or based on overcharging."

"The SEC's order finds that MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp. overstated revenues for nearly two years in response to immense pressure placed on employees each quarter to meet revenue and gross margin targets that had been communicated to the public."

"Based on the problematic Site Sharing portfolio, we believe that the above market rent that AMT is currently receiving, which amounts to 43% of operating revenue, is unsustainable and any average rent metrics based off this will be overstated."

"Warning: Oatly’s Gross Margin is overstated because it fails to include outbound shipping and handling costs. After a review of many public companies in the dairy, frozen and packaged foods space, we find this to be industry standard."

"In addition, the Company improperly accounted for other items that overstated net income, including the estimation and recording of self-insurance reserves, its recognition of equipment rental revenues, and its income tax accounting."

"Leidos discloses that $166m of its cash is really earmarked for “outstanding payments” and are included within cash and cash equivalents. Market data providers use an incorrect and overstated cash amount to derive Leidos’ valuation."

"Based on our estimated reported dairy farm construction costs, these estimates suggest that since going public, Huishan has overstated average dairy farm CapEx by one third (~RMB 29 million) to over one half (~RMB 54 million)."

"The IFRS deferred tax liability on the balance sheet of Toyota Industries is mechanically overstated by >¥800bn (pro forma as of January 16, 2026) – equating to an excess IFRS book value deduction of ~¥2,700 per share"

"Compared to its DTC peers, FIGS allocates nearly all fulfillment and distribution expenses to the operating expense line items, instead of COGS. This results in FIGS gross margins being overstated relative to peers."

"Xerox Board's Illustrative Value is 60% overstated, and the outcome will be far worse if the proposed synergies are not realized or – like Xerox's recent "cost savings" – are offset entirely by additional cost creep"

"Cumulatively, the amount of taxes under-reported on the income statement relative to cash taxes paid is ~$142m. Therefore, we argue that Net Income has also been cumulatively overstated by the corresponding amount."

"In reality, Samsara’s profitability has been dramatically overstated due to the Company’s questionable accounting policies and assumptions related to its average customer life and connected device life of 5 years."

"Spruce Point interviewed a former Stryker M&A professional who provided some startling insights about Stryker having been burned before by acquiring overstated inventory and performing limited due diligence."

"The market has historically valued software companies with a material hardware business at lower multiples because their revenue ramp is overstated and their gross margin profile is structurally inferior."

"Not only is the overall addressable market Astra has promoted vastly overstated – Astra's development path is on the wrong side of key trends within the industry: larger payloads and reusability."

"Because ELF's imported inventory values should have remained roughly constant, if we start reconciling inventory from Q3 FY24, which we'll assume is not overstated, we see a hole quickly build."

"Monster does not say what the revenue contribution from these purchased customer relationships is which suggests that its organic revenue growth could potentially be challenged and overstated."

"When aggregated and compared to IQ's F-1 prospectus, we found that the deferred revenues reported to the SEC were overstated by 261.7%, 165.5% and 86.2% in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively."

"If AMR is over-reporting production, there is a strong possibility its revenues and coal inventories are overstated. Overstated inventories can also to overstated margins and profitability."

"Phillips 66 has materially overstated the costs associated with a spin or sale of its Midstream business to cloud the simple, clear math showing the potential value unlock of a separation."

"If PowerSchool was previously ignoring discounts in reporting its revenue, this could suggest that previously recorded revenue has been overstated and future revenue growth may disappoint."

"Phillips 66 has materially overstated the costs associated with a spin or sale of its Midstream business to cloud the simple, clear math showing the potential value unlock of a separation."

"If in fact Oatly's revenues are overstated, costs understated, and net income overstated, one way to balance inflated profits on the asset side of the balance sheet is to inflate capex."

"When we adjust Samsara's COGS to assume a three-year amortization period for device costs, we find that gross margins have been overstated by well over 600bps the past two fiscal years."

"We estimate that Mettler's Adj. Diluted EPS is $1.90 - $2.23 (8.3% - 9.8%) overstated due to aggressive capitalization policies and failures to recognize inventory obsolescence charges."

"We therefore divide the estimated Q2 FY25 overstated inventory amount, which is a cumulative number, by ELF's reported gross margin of 71%. This provides the implied overstated revenue"

"Based on our analysis of the project economics underlying the UBS Wealth Management partnership, we believe the project should be impaired and that BR’s earnings are vastly overstated."

"We believe that RUN uses disallowed costs as part of its tax basis. Our Adjusted Cost Approach valuation suggests that RUN’s Cost Approach Tax Model valuation is overstated by 25.7%."

"If we assume that MPWR's inventory metrics should be in line with industry peers, and that $245 - $265m of revenue is overstated, it implies ~$93m of inventory is also overstated."

"We estimate that, with proceeds from asset sales deflating reported capex, Amdocs' free cash flow has been overstated by between $5M and $30M on an annual basis since FY 2016."

"For every dollar in biological assets, Trulieve is able to generate the least amount of dollar sales. This strongly suggests that the mark-up on these assets is overstated."

"If COGS are overstated in this way, then profits and sales must also be greatly overstated – over the preceding three quarters, possibly by hundreds of millions of dollars"

"In this city alone, site visits and field work indicate that BEKE overstated the store count by 59% by keeping branch SAIC registrations current while not actually stores."

"Our analysis focuses on a "Net Operational Profit Margin" to isolate float income (including the overstated credited yield) and to properly account for corporate expenses"

"Because Huishan has in fact been purchasing substantial quantities of alfalfa from third parties, its profits have been fraudulently overstated by a massive amount."

"10/24/14 -- VER issues 8K that AFFO had been overstated. The audit committee further concludes that the error had been indentified, but intentionally not corrected."

"After adjusting for our estimate of aggressively booked segment income, we find that Burford's combined 2019 operating profit is overstated by approximately 8.0%."

"Warning: Adjusted Net Income for 2018 Is Overstated By $14.3m ($73.7 – $59.4 Revised) Resulting In Adjusted EPS of $5.90 vs. $6.06 Reported (2.7% Overstated)"

"As a result, not only did Burford's cash receipts decline by -11.8% YoY, but Burford overstated its 2019 cash receipts by 14.5% by changing their definition."

"Progyny’s live birth rate calculation may be impacted by miscarriage data and may be overstated if miscarriages are under-reported. — Milliman Report"

"To us, the evidence suggests TMC overstated its NORI exploration expenditures in its SEC filings to give investors a false scale of its operations."

"The net effect of this extra year of customer life on the books is that we estimate EHTH’s constrained LTV for MA members is overstated by 28.2%."

"Overstated Margins from Day One. CoreWeave assumes EBITDA margins hit 80% immediately, a figure a former CoreWeave engineer called “utopian.”"