Markopolos has an agreement with an undisclosed hedge fund that will give him a share of the profits from bets that GE shares will decline. GE has called his allegations "meritless." His report claimed GE needed to immediately funnel $18.5 billion in cash into its troubled long-term care insurance business and accused the company of avoiding a writedown on its Baker Hughes stake. One way to read the debt buyback is that GE must not be too worried about a fresh cash shortfall at the insurance unit if it's willing to plop down $5 billion to repurchase bonds on a voluntary basis. And GE's stake sale this week will bring its holdings in Baker Hughes below 50%, which will prompt a charge that could be in the ballpark of $8 billion to $9 billion but also allow management to put one more inevitable writedown behind them.(1)