Monopoly Man Photobombs Senate Equifax Hearing

From May to July this year, Equifax was breached by hackers, exposing information on 143 million Americans, or the majority of American adults. The first thing their senior executives did upon finding the breach, was sell $1.8 million of stock in what seems to be a case of insider trading. A month ago, Equifax finally let the public know about it.

All they offered customers, whose social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, and in some cases even credit card numbers were exposed, was one free year of credit monitoring services in exchange for agreeing not to sue on a website which didn’t make such an agreement clear to the consumer. A counter-site was set up to make it easier to sue, using chatbots with knowledge of local legal options.

Joshua Browder, creator of the site, has high hopes for what his software can accomplish, saying that “I hope that my product will replace lawyers, and, with enough success, bankrupt Equifax.”. Many think Nelson’s marketing which implied the ability to sue Equifax with a click of a button was over-promising and misleading. Scot Nelson, attorney for the group Public Citizen, responded with “I am not inclined to think it would be a panacea. Filing and winning a small claims case takes more than just filling in a form.”

That’s not to say that Public Citizen was happy about Equifax’s actions, however. They are a consumer rights advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader and focusing on issues like corporate accountability. Specific to this case, they oppose forced arbitration, a specific legal practice that has protected Equifax from a class action lawsuit. I’m sure they also aren’t happy about Equifax being awarded a no-bid contract from the IRS (who also holds plenty of taxpayer’s information) to the tune of $7.25 million after the hack became public. Specifically, the contract tasks Equifax with helping the IRS “verify taxpayer identity and to assist in ongoing identity verification and validations needs”

So they decided to win the internet with a perfect photobomb to bring attention to their cause.

Senate hearings are sometimes important national events that can bring to light new information and change the actions of lawmakers. They are sometimes useless events, full of grandstanding politicians who merely want short clips of exchanges play-acting righteous indignation to use in marketing themselves to donors and voters. Nearly all are stuffy, technical events, devoid of humor or flair.

The hearing on Equifax was set to be exactly that. During testimony, Equifax CEO Richard Smith was set to speak to Congress on behalf of his company, discussing complicated technical legal and financial speak by using as many words as possible to say as little of substance as he could. Although his face seemed as serious as possible for such a sober event, the CSPAN cameras still told another story.

Behind him sat the monopoly (wo)man, and the following pictures are exactly why you clicked this link.

She wore a top hat, a monocle, a curly mustache, and a bow tie. Before the hearing began, she handed out “get out of jail free” cars discussing the practice of forced arbitration.

When the lights of the camera got too hot, she wiped her brow with money in between twirls of her mustache.

Which, of course, she pulled out of a large bag with a dollar bill sign on.

After the hearing, she attempted to give the bag to CEO Richard Smith, who tried his best to ignore her and briskly walk away.

Regardless of one’s thoughts on forced arbitration, business regulation, government contracts, Equifax, or new proposals to do away with social security numbers as unsecure and outdated, this is brilliantly creative activism.