Roundtripping

Topic

A controversial financial practice where a company invests in its customers to create revenue for itself. The podcast debates whether large AI deals constitute this, but generally concludes they have economic substance.


First Mentioned

10/11/2025, 3:44:33 AM

Last Updated

10/11/2025, 3:46:16 AM

Research Retrieved

10/11/2025, 3:46:16 AM

Summary

Roundtripping, in the context of financial transactions, refers to a fraudulent or questionable practice where money or assets are exchanged in a circular fashion between two or more entities, often with no net economic substance. This deceptive technique can be employed to inflate revenues, create fictitious transactions, manipulate financial statements, distort market demand, evade taxes, or launder money. The practice was specifically discussed on the All-In Podcast during an episode featuring guest host Brad Gerstner, where concerns were raised about its potential occurrence within the booming artificial intelligence sector, which is undergoing a massive buildout constrained by energy limitations and supply chain bottlenecks.

Referenced in 1 Document
Research Data
Extracted Attributes
  • Impact

    Distorts markets, misleads investors and stakeholders, can facilitate or conceal other types of fraud, and can interfere with technical analysis based on volume data.

  • Aliases

    Circular trading, Lazy Susans, churning, wash trades.

  • Purpose

    Inflate revenues, manipulate financial statements, create fictitious transactions, distort market demand, evade taxes, launder money.

  • Definition

    A fraudulent or questionable practice in finance where money or assets are exchanged in a circular fashion between two or more entities, often with no net economic substance, to create an appearance of legitimate business activity or inflate financial metrics.

  • Context in AI Sector

    Concerns about questionable roundtripping transactions within the massive AI buildout, despite an overall optimistic outlook for the sector.

  • Industry Applications

    Accounting, capital markets, trading, international scenarios (tax evasion, money laundering).

Timeline
  • Concerns about questionable roundtripping transactions in the AI sector were discussed on the All-In Podcast, featuring guest host Brad Gerstner, as part of a broader analysis of technological developments. (Source: Document 7a37f942-8e58-4649-a17d-7314ffbcc445)

    Undated

  • Round-trip trading has been identified as a market manipulation technique used in several high-profile scandals, including the Enron collapse. (Source: web_search_results)

    Undated

Round trip

A round trip (American English), or return or return travel (British English), means travel to the destination and back again. Round trip may refer to:

Web Search Results
  • Round-tripping (finance) - Wikipedia

    In international scenarios, round-tripping is a method of structuring to evade taxes and/or to launder money. Companies have used round-tripping to distort the market by establishing false revenue benchmarks, aiming to meet or beat the numbers put out by Wall Street stock analysts. As a result of abusive round trips, barter between publicly held companies has become discredited among professional investors. ## See also [edit&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: See also")] [...] Round-tripping, also known as round-trip transactions or Lazy Susans, is defined by The Wall Street Journal as a form of barter that involves a company selling "an unused asset to another company, while at the same time agreeing to buy back the same or similar assets at about the same price." Swapping assets on a round-trip produces no net economic substance, but may be fraudulently reported as a series of productive sales and beneficial purchases on the books of the companies involved, [...] Jump to content # Round-tripping (finance) Հայերեն 日本語 Suomi Edit links From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Form of barter where a company sells then buys back an asset

  • Dont Be Fooled: Key Red Flags In Round-Tripping Strategies

    Round-tripping refers to a fraudulent practice where two entities engage in a series of transactions that create an appearance of legitimate business activity, while in reality, they are merely exchanging the same money or assets back and forth. This deceptive technique can be employed to inflate revenues, create fictitious transactions, or manipulate financial statements. By engaging in round-tripping, companies can present a misleading picture of their financial health to stakeholders, [...] Round-tripping can occur in various industries and sectors, including accounting, capital markets, and trading. In accounting, round-tripping involves inflating revenues or manipulating financial metrics through fictitious transactions. This practice can mislead investors and stakeholders about the company’s financial health. For example, a company involved in round-tripping might create fictitious sales or engage in circular transactions with related parties to artificially boost its revenue [...] ## Round-Tripping in Capital Markets Round-tripping in the capital markets is a form of financial fraud that involves various techniques to manipulate financial transactions and create the appearance of legitimate activity. Understanding the red flags associated with this practice is essential for regulatory and compliance professionals. In this section, we will explore some common red flags and indicators of round-tripping in capital markets. ### Tax Evasion and Foreign Direct Investment

  • Rount-Trip Trading Definition, Legitimate & Unethical Examples

    Round-trip trading, or "round-tripping," usually refers to the unethical practice of purchasing and selling shares of the same security over and over again in an attempt to manipulate observers into believing that the security is in higher demand than it actually is. By creating fake trading volume, round-tripping can also interfere with technical analysis based on volume data. [...] Round-trip trading is an attempt to create the appearance of a high volume of trades, without the company behind the security experiencing an increase in income or earnings. These types of trades can be carried out in several ways, but most commonly are completed by a single trader selling and purchasing the security on the same trading day, or by two companies buying and selling securities between themselves. This practice is also known as churning or making wash trades. [...] Round-trip trading generally refers to an unethical market-manipulation technique involving a series of wash trades. Repeatedly buying and selling securities will inflate trading volume and balance sheet figures to game the activity and interest in a stock. Round-trip trading has been seen in several high-profile scandals, including the Enron collapse. ## Understanding Round-Trip Trading

  • Revenue Recognition Frauds for Lawyers: Round Tripping

    Revenue ‘round tripping’, also known as ‘circular trading’ or ‘Lazy Susans’(#footnote1), refers to a series of unethical sales or investment transactions through which goods or services from one company are passed to a third party, only to be resold to the original company at the same, or approximately the same price. They are distinct from properly disclosed open and closed transactions such as sale and return contracts or swap trades because the commercial nature of the transaction is [...] Round tripping is a long-used scheme to artificially overstate revenue. The impact of such frauds on company stakeholders can be significant and wide reaching. It remains essential for gatekeepers to be aware of warning flags and take steps to immediately address suspected suspicious activity and detect the scope of any wrongdoing and prevent further harm. However, the competitive pressures on companies to, achieve sales and meet growth targets means that round tripping fraud is highly likely [...] It is also common for round tripping to facilitate, conceal or augment other types of fraud, which can heighten regulatory scrutiny and potentially result in incremental penalties and enforcement actions. For example, the circular nature of round tripping transactions makes it complex to identify and trace back the original revenue source, making it a common technique used to layer the proceeds of crime (Money Laundering). Also, some round tripping transactions provide a commercial incentive

  • Round-trip engineering - Wikipedia

    Round-trip engineering (RTE) in the context of model-driven architecture is a functionality of software development tools that synchronizes two or more related software artifacts, such as, source code, models "Conceptual model (computer science)"), configuration files, documentation, etc. between each other. The need for round-trip engineering arises when the same information is present in multiple artifacts and when an inconsistency may arise in case some artifacts are updated. For example, [...] [edit] [...] when the software is updated to reflect changes made to the previously reverse engineered specification.