I agree with your thesis.
And by extension... Prosper trying to do whatever it takes to avoid repurchases leads me to believe only one thing: their Cash Requirements Report must be looking pretty dire.
Every business that has a large A/P usually in their bookkeeping software runs a Cash Requirements report which shows the present outflows of cash that are upcoming and the amount of cash that is necessary to cover those immediate obligations within the accounting period.
When your Cash Requirements report starts to turn up negative or starts heading towards it every month you start running it---then you are in some SERIOUS deep shit. My guess is that CL and the Prosper Gang are worried that cash flow is still seriously negative, and are now trying to keep outflows from increasing in every way imaginable.
And that means no more "ID Theft Guarantee" repurchases.
As damage goes, this is pretty bad. People who read fool are exactly the types they want to attract as lenders. I have defended the company here before when I felt it was necessary, but not this time. The filing in that court seems like no more than an attempt to evade a payout on the ID theft guarantee.
Even if there is some clever word parsing taking place to make their statements technically true enough to not be an outright lie in a BK court, I think everyone reads between the lines.
If there has ever been a case of shooting yourself in the foot this is it. It could cost them millions in lender deposits and people searching for loans. The only way they have to get a hold of this is to fix it immediately.
Steps:
- payout the ID theft regardless of whether it is or is not
- Post a correction on the company blog
- Amend the court documents
- Try and get Motley Fool to post an update
- Cut these shenanigans out for good