I’ve only seen clips so far, will watch the full thing later but a few points...
1. I had assumed they were on salary. Joe didn’t seem like the type to offer percentages, for the same reason Rory mentioned lol. This piece of information changes the game for me.
2. Working in finance, there really isn’t a logical explanation for 400k going missing. That being said, Joe uses a firm to do his quarterly accounting. Firms aren’t going to help a small business cook the books. So if the books are cooked, it would have to be Ian and Joe outsmarting an accounting firm. Do I buy that? Not really. It’s possible but would be a lot of work.
3. Flip side argument: Joe comes from an industry known for creative, bullshyt accounting: the music industry. Could he be applying similar tricks with a small business? Ian is his manager from the music industry days, he knows the game. Like I said, I’d expect an accounting firm to blow this up but I’ll watch the video and hear the argument.
4. What if the books are clean but Joe presented faked/edited numbers to Rory and Mal? I just thought of this while typing. This would be a good way to bullshyt without going to jail (right away).