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When fake customers generate real customers.

I simply mean they probably knew the business didn’t have that 4 Million customers and they were probably content to buy a business that had 300k customers.

Would you have turned down an early opportunity to invest in Facebook, Reddit, Airbnb, etc, when they were in a fake it till you make it stage? It’s prudent to recognize that yes the business is cooking the books (after all we’re JPM, you don’t think we do some of that ourselves?) and yes they may also be a worthwhile bet.

The way this is different is because those sites were faking it to make their site seem more active to users. Here there's no draw to users it's ONLY for the valuation and purchase. JPM wanted 4 million people unable to fill out a FAFSA but willing to pay to have it done. The exact kind of person who fucks up credit cards and pays $$$ of interest for years.

A person or group working there benefited from it, which is enough for it to happen.

2008 was that at an endemic scale.

Nothing to do with 2008. JP Morgan and the other banks made fees by selling mortgage-backed securities where the real credit risk was obscured by packaging good mortgages with bad.

JP Morgan spending $175m for hot air isn't something they can spin into gold.

Volume!