back to article Infosec biz boss accused of BS'ing the world about his career, anti-crime product, customers

Jack Blount, the now-ex CEO of Intrusion, has settled with the SEC over allegations he made false and misleading statements about his infosec firm's product as well as his own background and experience. In a complaint [PDF] filed Tuesday, America's financial watchdog charged Blount with breaking anti-fraud rules in the …

  1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

    Blount has not admitted or denied the SEC's allegations of wrongdoing, but he's just a greed not to be an officer or director of a company in the future. I mean what is the point of regulators if, when there are blatant falsehoods, they go unacknowledged? I guess I just dislike the 'without accepting liability or fault in any way ...' approach to resolution.

    1. Ace2 Silver badge

      The typo of “he’s just a greed” fits perfectly.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Agreed - find him criminally guilty of fraud, bit of jailtime, and required to pay restitution/fines, by wage garnishment if he can't pay outright. "Inability to pay" should not be an excuse to get off scot-free.

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        That's not how this works. The SEC can't "find him criminally guilty of fraud". That's something a jury, or judge in a bench trial, would have to do; and it would require a US prosecutor filing charges and deciding to take the case to trial rather than taking a plea bargain. Fraud is an indictable offense, so first the USADA would have to impanel a grand jury and get an indictment.

        We have this thing called "the rule of law". It has a lot of holes and it misfires frequently, but it does mean that the SEC can't just decide you're guilty of fraud by fiat.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          So charge him instead of letting him go! Yes, I am familiar with the concept of charges and trials, and was not trying to imply that the SEC can simply find him guilty without a trial. My point was that shrugging and saying "he can't pay a big fine, so he's free to go" is the exact wrong way of handling fraud.

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      I don't know that anyone likes it, except the defendants who take it. But I understand it. The agencies have limited resources to pursue a case in court, which can be very time-consuming and expensive — and time is not on their side, when the agency leadership might change every four years. And court cases are unpredictable. By reaching an agreement they get to assign some penalty, which is better than nothing.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        What was the penalty here? No jailtime, no fine, simply not allowed to be an officer or director of a company. I would hope his history would convince companies not to allow him to be an officer or director!

        1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

          If he was prepared to lie about his history before, what is to stop him doing so again?

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    He was just following Trump's lead

    Not surprising that this character lied his way through, he was following the ex-President's brilliant example.

    And as long as the OHSG is not cut down to size and put in an orange jumpsuit, characters like this one will continue to pop up and wreak havoc everywhere.

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: He was just following Trump's lead

      I'm certainly not a fan of Trump, but the man didn't invent lying. People have been doing that for years.

      1. Mathrawker
        Facepalm

        Re: He was just following Trump's lead

        Invent, no. He's elevated it to an art form.

  3. Edwin

    Lies in infosec?

    Hardly new, and sometimes significantly more damaging. For the soap opera version, look up Rian van Rijbroek...

  4. aerogems Silver badge

    He probably would have gotten away with all of this if not for the regulatory filing with false info in it; though claiming you're the former CIO of a government agency is just plain stupid given how easy it would be to verify, plus it's probably a felony to impersonate a federal employee. As usual, he got high on his own supply, got greedy, and fucked up as a result.

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Certainly the SEC would have been much less likely to poke into it if he hadn't made fraudulent filings. Company officers can get away with a fair amount of bullshit in public statements — it's hard to hit the Musk threshold where your off-the-cuff remarks reach the level of securities fraud. Even outright misrepresentations can often be excused as puffery, if they're not too specific. But when it comes to those filings, the rules are a lot stricter.

      (I don't think he "impersonate[d] a federal employee". He claimed he had been a federal employee, which was true, and he was even in the department where he claimed to have worked, and in a related role. He just misrepresented the level of his position. As an investor I would have certainly considered that fairly outrageous, and probably argued it was fraudulent, but it wasn't impersonation per se.)

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like