Suspended sentences all around.
The Bloomberg report, Ex-Olympus Chairman Gets Suspended Sentence for Fraud, says the three senior staff charged a year ago received suspended sentences after their guilty pleas.
The individuals and their sentences: …
Suspended sentences for senior Olympus officials in $1.7B fraudRead More »
Suspended sentences for senior Olympus officials in $1.7B fraud Read More »
As expected, former regional audit PIC Scott London entered a guilty plea on Monday to one count of securities fraud. Sentencing is set for October 21, 2013.
In the 90 minutes since I saw the first report, over 30 hits show up on an internet search. I’m sure there will be many dozens more in the next few hours.
Three initial articles I saw:
In a speech that should give all auditors pause, Andrew Fastow, former CFO of Enron, tells us that all the off-balance sheet transactions were reviewed and approved in advance by everybody.
Enron was one of the biggest in the host of business frauds after the turn of the century.
Half of Enron’s assets were off-balance sheet. According to the article, Former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow Confronts the Fraud Examiners, Mr. Fastow says those deals were intended to deceive:
Fastow admitted that his role was engaging in structured finance transactions that intentionally created a false appearance for Enron.
The goal was to create misleading financial statements.
Did he violate the accounting rules?
No.
Did he break specific laws?
No.
The transactions were reviewed and approved, yet still fraudulent
…
Tracy Coenen lists 9 reasons for “Escaping Detection: Why Auditors Do Not Find Fraud”.
If we understand why audits are a poor tool for detecting fraudulent financials, we can improve our chances of finding material frauds.
Check out her post, it will be worth your time.
Here are a few thoughts expanding on her list. …
(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit update.)
This is cool. The Franchise Tax Board has an online feature call the Entity Status Letter which allows you to quickly find whether an NPO is exempt with the state of California.
You can go to the Self Serve Entity Status Letter – Entity Search page. If the link breaks, just search “entity status letter” at the FTB website.
This will also work for a for-profit business.
…
(cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)
We accountants love pie charts. We think it makes complex info easy to understand.
For us as accountants that may be the case. For others who aren’t as analytical, that may not be the case.
The Worst Chart In The World, an article at Business Insider, explains why.
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The dangers of using pie charts Read More »
Time to find a new RSS reader if you’ve been using Google. I know a small group of people are reading this blog with that service. Time to find another one.
I looked at several and tried out a few. I’ve jumped to the Old Reader.
Not quite like Google’s, but it is working fine.
It is very easy to export a file containing a list of your subscriptions. Also easy to import that into most readers. But do that before June 30.
Reminder – Google RSS Reader goes away on July 1 Read More »
Deloitte Financial Advisory Services agreed to a $10M fine from the N.Y. Department of Financial Services and a one year ban on new work for state chartered banks.
The consent agreement between the state regulators and Deloitte Financial Advisory Services can be found here.
What’s the problem?
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Deloitte penalized for anti-money-laundering work done for Standard CharteredRead More »
Deloitte penalized for anti-money-laundering work done for Standard Chartered Read More »
More good stuff for you to ponder – FRF-SMEs (aka small GAAP from the AICPA) and naming the parters on public company audits:
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More good stuff for auditors – 6-19-13 Read More »
“Going to meet your Maker with the fresh scent of theft on your hands is not a good way to go…”
is how Charles Hall starts his story of a long ago fraud – Stealing While Dying.
We’ve all seen the situation where the bookkeeper does the main bookkeeping, receives the bank statements, reconciles the accounts, and is an authorized check signer.
In this situation, the most-honest-and-nicest-person-you’ll-ever-meet bookkeeper starting stealing lots of money when she became gravely ill.
Check out the full story. …
Live example of a fraud fiasco Read More »
Scott London was in court today on procedural matters regarding the criminal complaint alleging insider trading.
CNBC has a video interview with him.
The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times have more details.
A few tidbits from the televised interview:
…
Price reduced to only $0.99, now available here.
“Tragedy of Fraud – The Ripple Effects from Fraud and the Wages Earned” describes the tragic consequences from fraud.
There are ripple effects that spread out to harm innocent bystanders. The perpetrator draws a wide range of well-deserved wages that will be paid in full.
The book looks at two fraud incidents to learn what happens after a fraud is discovered. One took place in a local megachurch and the other in the mayor’s office of a small city.
This book is a compilation of blogs posts that have been previously published at Nonprofit Update and Attestation Update. The posts have been edited slightly and reorganized for easier reading.
Major sections of the book:
The other book I have available at Amazon is Once Upon Internal Control.
Price cut on my newest e-book, “Tragedy of Fraud” Read More »
I walk into the room while my wife is watching a movie on Lifetime Movie Network™.
I watch for 30 or 60 seconds.
I guess who is the bad guy/bad gal.
I’m usually right.
How is it possible to guess correctly most of the time? Well, let’s see…
I know there’s normally a bad guy on the network’s movies. There’s usually a small cast of characters and the bad gal gets lots of screen time. There’s usually ominous music playing when the bad guy is engaged in bad-guy-stuff.
How does that help CPAs?
…
Why auditing is not like watching a movie Read More »
The AICPA’s version of small-GAAP is out today.
FRF-SMEs are an option for small businesses that don’t need the complexity of GAAP financial statements.
I think this could be a big deal. Whether it is or not will depend on acceptance by the lending community.
The entire body of knowledge is in a 206 page document. Of that, the glossary is 16 pages. The core text is 172 pages. That’ it. Only 172 pages make up the full set of rules.
Here is some info:
There are so many good accounting articles that I would like to discuss in a full post. Alas, time does not permit.
Thus I will start putting up a list of good stuff that I’d like talk about but only have time to recommend with a sentence. Focus will be on articles I think would help other CPAs.
Here’s my first list:
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More good stuff for auditors – 6-10-13 Read More »