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  "docSlug": "a60181df6346",
  "documentTitle": "American Tower (AMT)",
  "authorId": "51_Muddy_Waters",
  "authorName": "Carson C. Block",
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  "sourceTypeSlug": "short_seller",
  "sourceTypeLabel": "Short seller",
  "presentationDate": "2013-08-01 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The text highlights potential financial irregularities and management's failure to address them.",
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      "text": "We view the disappearance of approximately $250 million from one acquisition as alarming – particularly because this could be more than a one-off problem.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "The question is therefore: What happened to the approximately $250 million extra AMT claimed to pay? Did AMT employees steal the money? Was this an accounting plug to make the Company appear to be more profitable than it actually is?",
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      "text": "Management portrayed its acquisition of Site Sharing as a success, without addressing the approximately $250 million accounting discrepancy, or alternatively, trying to justify how, on a per tower basis, Site Sharing could have been worth about 4x its other international acquisitions.",
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      "text": "We view the disappearance of approximately $250 million from one acquisition as alarming – particularly because this could be more than a one-off problem.",
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      "text": "Management stated that it only enters an international market if its meets the criteria of “tradition of rule of law in that country, the track record of judicial independence and respect for property rights, specifically with regard to existing foreign investors.”",
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      "text": "AMT’s response to our conclusions regarding Site Sharing was devoid of any substance – it reaffirmed the purchase price, and stated it injected sufficient funds into Brazil to pay for the purchase.",
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      "text": "The key to understanding the discrepancy between AMT’s disclosed price and the actual price is the BRL:USD exchange rate.",
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      "text": "Management stated that it only enters an international market if its meets the criteria of “tradition of rule of law in that country, the track record of judicial independence and respect for property rights, specifically with regard to existing foreign investors.” — American Tower Management",
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