Weren't we just talking about child pervs the other day?! We were! Well lo-and-behold, a tipster enlightens us to the sordid tale of 41 year-old Jeffrey R. Bainter of St. Louis who – according to his LinkedIn profile [ed. note: which has been pulled as of Monday but appears below]- has worked as an audit manager for Deloitte since May of 2011. Well that's not very exciting. But this next part is.
Last Friday, Bainter was arrested and charged with four felony counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of promoting child porn after incidents on March 4th and 8th that we still don't have details on. The more serious charges are classified as either 2nd offenses or are reserved for those in possession of more than 20 pics or "one film." We can only imagine one part of the transaction involved an FBI agent playing either a fellow kiddie porn hoarder or perhaps Estonian dealer of quality child porn from around the globe. Who knows.
Bainter is presumably out on bail as the St. Louis County jail in Clinton Clayton, Missouri confirms he is no longer in their custody and will not discuss pending charges related to an inmate no longer in their custody. St. Louis office managing partner Rodney Kirzinger – who was working late last night when we called! – referred us to Deloitte spokesman Clay Perschall who has not returned a voicemail requesting comment.
The most disturbing part about these charges, if true, are that he lists his LinkedIn interests as – wait for it – Cub Scout leader, youth soccer and baseball coach.
UPDATE: We have the LinkedIn profile for your reading pleasure.
“This is one of the biggest battlegrounds in the transnational regulation of accounting firms,” said Paul Gillis, a visiting professor of accounting at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. “Deloitte is between a rock and a hard place. This is a major escalation.” [WSJ, Earlier]
Deloitte is being sued by Marin County in California, who is alleging fraud by misrepresenting its “skills and experience.” In other words, the County says that D used their ERP project as more or less a training ground for its newbie consultants. And no client likes it when you bring the blades of grass on site. They can’t even turn on their laptops without causing some sort of scene, amiright?
The County in April 2005 hired Deloitte to implement its SAP ERP system. However, the County alleged in the court document, “rather than providing the County with SAP and public sector exp d the County’s SAP project as a trial-and-error training ground to teach its consultants — many of them neophytes — about SAP for Public Sector software, all at the county’s expense.”
Plus! The County claims Deloitte promised their very best people. From the complaint: “Deloitte further represented that for the County’s SAP implementation, Deloitte had assembled a team of its ‘best resources’ who had ‘deep SAP and public sector knowledge.’ “
A Big 4 firm promising their best and brightest on the job in an RFP? There’s a shocker. “Best” being relative, as we all know but Marin County (obviously not familiar with a Big 4 sales pitch) must have been expecting a team to fly in from hyperspace that could slap this thing in lickity.
1. The court filing describes sales practices that are common through the consulting and systems integration industry.
For example, the complaint alleges that Deloitte committed to “dedicate our best resources and bring tailored implementation strategies to meet [Marin’s] long-term needs.” Many IT customers complain their system integrators do not follow through on such commitments and use inexperienced labor in attempts to reduce their own costs and increase profits.
We’d be so bold to say that this true of many Big 4 engagements, whatever the service line. Newbies have to get their teeth cut somewhere – why not on a public service job where money obviously grows on trees?
Deloitte isn’t impressed with this gnat of a lawsuit, claiming that they did exactly what they were supposed to do (not to mention to put up with the amateurs at MC that have zilch ERP experience) and the system was working just fine when they left:
As stated previously, we fulfilled each and every one of our obligations under the contract, as evidenced three years ago when all of our work was approved by the County officials responsible for the project. To be clear, the SAP (NYSE:SAP) software was working properly when we completed our work in November 2007. Not only is the complaint without merit, but we are filing our own claim against the County for breach of agreement and unpaid invoices. Although we are confident that we will prevail in court, it remains our belief that this dispute can and should be resolved in a more logical fashion that benefits the County and its taxpayers.
So Deloitte gets a little huffy basically saying, “Suck it, Marin County. MBAs love Deloitte. OH, and btw, you owe us some money,” but ultimately wants to keep things civilized for the sake of the taxpayers. Let’s hope it stays childish just for the sake of entertainment purposes. Taxpayers in California are f—ed anyway.
