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Results for auditors indepen. Search took 0.07 seconds.
More on the Satyam-PWC scandal
in Sox First, on May 27, 2009
...addressed. As Angur points out, the company was able to inflate its profits by $1.6 billion and its auditors at PwC didn't pick up the problem. Francine McKenna at The Auditors blog really gets... ...rnance regimes with laws like Sarbanes-Oxley. But nothing will be fixed until the issue of auditor independence and integrity is addressed. As Angur points out, the company was able to inflate its pr...
GM death watch
in Sox First, on March 6, 2009
... written, 2009 will go down as the year of the dead man walking. The New York Times reports that auditors Deloitte say GM's survival is in serious doubt, and that's even with $30 billion of...
Satyam: do we need a global Sarbox
in Sox First, on January 21, 2009
...ad intentionally overestimated, to $1.4bn, the value of the company's assets. The company's auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers have been replaced. A good rundown of the story from the New York T... ...rting that India is plagued by poor disclosure, lots of creative accounting and a shortage of truly independent directors. But the more important question is whether we need a global Sarbox. The worl...
The Madoff scandal: now for the auditors
in Sox First, on December 23, 2008
Yesterday, I did a blog entry on how the Madoff scandal had out accountants in the gun. The view now is that no-one could have pulled off a scam as big as this, and kept it going for so long, without some outside help. Now The Wall Street Journal reports that investigators have jumped on a ...
Will there be more Madoffs?
in Sox First, on December 16, 2008
... protect investors because it was all too hard, and one that allowed him to get away with complicit auditors. And the other point too is that Madoff would never have been able to get away with it for ...
How Madoff played the SEC for suckers
in Sox First, on December 15, 2008
...d not be nearly replicated by our quant analyst. The feeder funds had recognized administrators and auditors but substantially all of the assets were custodied with Madoff Securities. This necessitate...
PCAOB to auditors: turn up the heat
in Sox First, on December 9, 2008
...
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has put auditors on notice. in the wake of the economic meltdown, they need to exercise extreme scepticism. The PCAOB has put out a report tellin...
Auditors slam bailout
in Sox First, on December 3, 2008
The Government Accountability Office has raised questions about the transparency of the US Government's $700 billion rescue package for profligate banks. In its report , the GAO says nobody really seems to be tracking how the money is being spent. "The banking regulators indicated t...
Auditors can't beat fraud
in Sox First, on November 25, 2008
...
Some 12 months ago, I did a blog entry suggesting that it might be easy to pull the wool over auditors' eyes when it comes to fraud.
Now a piece in CIO Today, Investigations or Audits: Fr...
G20 undermines accounting independence
in Sox First, on November 18, 2008
...s a different funding system. Accounting standard setters share one thing in common with judges and auditors: they not only need to be independent, they need to be visibly independent. Unfortunately,... ...omote transparency. And that raises serious questions about whether the IASB will be able to remain independent because promoting stability will mean closer co-operations with institutions like banks....
SEC is wrong on short selling
in Sox First, on July 29, 2008
...vored "nationally recognized" credit-rating agencies. It is the agency that watched while auditors became corporate consultants, selling the kind of services that audits should detect and re...
Managers' behavior and fraud: warning signals
in Sox First, on July 25, 2008
...ions. The authors say that these variables need to be incorporated into auditing standards to give auditors enough of a warning sign....
Limited liability for US auditors coming in?
in Sox First, on June 18, 2008
...
Last week, I looked at how European auditors were on the way to getting limited liability . Now it looks like their US counterparts are going to get the same thing with reports that the Securi...
Computing is Bigger in Vegas
in Bizinformer, on June 12, 2008
... see if I could justify a convention trip on the business tab. No dice. The Institute of Internal Auditors have the next big convention out there in July (with the exception of a June seminar on Acc...
Auditor liability caps
in Sox First, on June 11, 2008
...o, I wrote about some disturbing developments where a European study pushed for liability caps for auditors . There is an issue of moral hazard here. Auditors should be held accountable and not havin...
Bringing accounting firms to account
in Sox First, on June 11, 2008
...nsparency. But CFO.com raises one obvious problem in its great headline: But Who'll Audit the Auditors' Reports? ...
The audit cartel
in Sox First, on June 4, 2008
...r medium-sized firms. They could insist on compulsory retendering or company audits and rotation of auditors. They could invite new players to the audit market. The Securities Exchange Commission or t... ...udits, company accounts, corporate governance or freedom from frauds and fiddles. Without effective independent regulation, public accountability and demanding liability laws, the industry cannot prov...
Failed audit in Iraq
in Sox First, on May 24, 2008
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No surprises that US government auditors have found that the contracting practices in Iraq are deficient. And a complete waste of taxpayers' money. The New York Times reports that the us ...
Average 2007 SOX compliance bill: $1.7 Million
in Sox First, on May 2, 2008
...revenues of $4.7 billion. And while compliance costs are actually slipping, that hasn't stopped auditors from cashing in big time. According to the latest Financial Executives International surv...
PCAOB targets mortgage securities
in Sox First, on May 1, 2008
... at off-balance sheet transactions. The PCAOB has fired a shot across the bows of all audit firms. Auditors are on notice: the PCAOB has you in its sights....
PCAOB's fifth birthday
in Sox First, on April 27, 2008
...viewed in just five years, 700 inspections of small and large firms, 17 enforcement actions against auditors and firms and 17 Deloitte & Touche clients that had audit deficiencies in their 2004 au...
Auditors and independence
in Sox First, on April 23, 2008
...
Auditors take note: from now on, you will have to tell audit committees all about compromising links BEFORE you do any work for them. As expected, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ha... ...ial reporting oversight role at the issuer that may reasonably be thought to bear on the firm's independence. Registered firms will also be required to discuss with the audit committee the potenti...
PCAOB and the new independence rule
in Sox First, on April 20, 2008
...e Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is looking at a new independence rule designed to force auditors to come clean on their links with corporations. The PCAOB has announced it will hold an ... ...
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is looking at a new independence rule designed to force auditors to come clean on their links with corporations. The PCAOB has announced it will ho...
Chinese stock market pains
in Sox First, on April 8, 2008
... Chinese companies follow international accounting rules but there is a shortage of accountants and auditors, and the rules for foreign takeovers are murky and untested. Investors face risks in this ...
SOX-related boardroom changes and share price
in Sox First, on April 1, 2008
...re forced to overhaul their systems of corporate governance. A Raft of changes were introduced. Auditors were required report to audit committees, audit committee had to comprise directors who wer... ...ditors were required report to audit committees, audit committee had to comprise directors who were independent from the firm, at least one member of the audit committee had to be a financial expert, ...
Fraud and IPOs
in Sox First, on March 31, 2008
...out misrepresenting information to outside investors. This study sends a message to regulators and auditors. You can't expect investors to stop or monitor fraud. All they want are good returns. B...
Biovail's fraud and SOX
in Sox First, on March 27, 2008
...n effort to conceal the fraud, Biovail's senior officers intentionally misled the company's auditors and the investing public, showing their complete disregard for their responsibilities to sh...
What's caused the explosion in restatements?
in Sox First, on March 21, 2008
...were usually the result of internal mistakes made by their own accountants and the failure of their auditors to catch them. The research, conducted by Marlene Plumlee of the University of Utah and ...
SEC-PCAOB arm wrestle
in Sox First, on February 27, 2008
...rding to Gillan, the SEC really pushed the PCAOB to water down standards, in particular the role of auditors in testing internal controls. The SEC, according to Gillan, wanted auditors to take a back ...
Sponsored Post: SPAM, Viruses and the Blacklisting of Exchange Servers
in I got Spam?!, on February 19, 2008
...net gateway is infected and spamming.
Turns out that users with their own machines, which included auditors and sales reps plugged into the corporate network, not knowing they were infected with a SP...
Société Générale fallout: who's next?
in Sox First, on February 18, 2008
...n attack, either through deliberate targeting or through the failure of IT security staff and auditors who in the interests of saving a nail in their budget are prepared to risk the Kingdom. Société G...
Who exposes corporate fraud?
in Sox First, on February 11, 2008
In their haste to pass Sarbanes-Oxley into law following the spate of scandals headed up by Enron, politicians and regulators neglected to look carefully at the issue of whistleblowers. Who actually blows the whistle ? What drives them to do it? Important questions because the answers tell...
Lawsuits increase with subprime
in Sox First, on January 3, 2008
Just after Christmas, I did an entry looking at how the subprime crisis had driven a big increase in securities lawsuits. The NERA Economic Consulting's semi-annual benchmark study showed the 2007 federal filings are projected to increase by 58 per cent compared to the previous year. Now w...
The Siemens money trail
in Sox First, on December 28, 2007
... been for osama bin laden . According to the WSJ, the illicit transactions were picked up by auditors for a bank owned by Liechtenstein's royal family. Looking out for possible terrorist tr...
Skilling fights on
in Sox First, on December 22, 2007
...ling's appeal of his conviction on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors right here . . The 161 page document lays down a number of challenges in a number of area...
PCAOB action
in Sox First, on December 13, 2007
...ublicity for Deloitte. And in another development, the PCAOB has given long overdue guidance for auditors to sort through the risks associated with the subprime credit situation in relation to fair...
White collar crime professionals
in Sox First, on December 10, 2007
...nded Neo - Institutional Theory of Misconduct in Professional Service Firms . The paper found that auditors are much less likely than other professionals to engage in client-centered misconduct like ...
No accounting for Giuliani
in Sox First, on December 1, 2007
...s dog. Politico.com revealed that the mayor's office refused to explain the accounting to city auditors, citing "security". There are more revelations of accounting gimmicks from TPM...
Learning the Sarbox ropes
in Sox First, on November 30, 2007
...ng why Sarbanes-Oxley was unlikely to get overhauled in the near future. Simply put, businesses and auditors are getting used to it and getting rid of it, or at least changing it, doesn't play pol...
Curveball questions
in Sox First, on November 18, 2007
...ives (i.e., the company pays the taxes as well)? Are executive perquisites reviewed by the internal auditors and reported to the audit committee (compensation committee)? There are 59 pages of great... ...nagement's decisions? What examples can you give to demonstrate that directors are sufficiently independent and strong to overrule management when necessary? What is the company's policy on...
Beyond the SOX shock?
in Sox First, on November 16, 2007
...itional SOX compliance functions.What that suggests of course is that five years on, businesses and auditors have now become used to it and have adjusted accordingly. In other words, companies are now...
Accountants and fraud
in Sox First, on November 13, 2007
...ng giant Grant Thornton asked chief financial officers and senior comptrollers whether they thought auditors were responsible for detecting any and all fraud, a whopping 82 per cent answered in the af...
GAO slates IRS
in Sox First, on November 12, 2007
...ective information security, confidential taxpayer records will remain at risk and we, as IRS's auditors, will continue to be unable to rely on the automated controls built into these systems to o...
Auditors, litigation and caps
in Sox First, on November 2, 2007
...
Hat tip to Francine McKenna at Re: The Auditors for alerting to us the prospect of entrepreneurial litigation funders threatening to drive auditors out of business. Certainly the case of third ...
PCAOB slates audits of small firms
in Sox First, on October 26, 2007
...ley deadline for smaller companies, can smaller entities cope when there is an expected shortage of auditors? After December 15, between 13,000 and 14,000 companies will for the first time have to com...
More problems with the PCAOB
in Sox First, on October 15, 2007
..., identifies new deficiencies. The PCAOB provides little information to clients as to whether their auditors are up to scratch. "The fundamental problem is that the PCAOB discloses the deficienci...
What Derrick Locke Can Teach You About Hiring Good People
in Businesspundit, on October 14, 2007
... look for a resume of someone who has already done whatever it is you need done. You don't hire auditors that haven't audited, managers that haven't managed, salespeople that haven't s...
Top trends for internal auditors
in Sox First, on October 2, 2007
...particularly with the outsourcing of core functions. Most of them believe that the army of internal auditors will continue to grow, and a large proportion expect to get additional responsibilities put...
Financial statement fraud gangs
in Sox First, on October 1, 2007
...was 7.2, including including CEOs, CFOs, COOs, general counsel, directors and internal and external auditors. According to the study, CEOs and CFOs were named as participants in the great majority of...
Missing Iraq dollars: Tales from the Coalition of the Billing
in Sox First, on September 14, 2007
... where it went. The C.P.A. turned over $1.5 billion in cash to Iraqi banks, for instance, but later auditors could account for less than $500 million. The United Nations retained a team of auditors to...
Why we are not as ethical as we think
in Sox First, on September 14, 2007
... ethical? Think of the people who would never steal but who fiddle their tax returns. Or the auditors who help skew the accounts to make sick companies look healthy? What about the normally eth...
IT clueless boards.
in Sox First, on September 5, 2007
...rstanding IT risks. These are the findings of a PricewaterhouseCoopers and institute of internal auditors survey. The study, IT Risk - Closing the Gap , found that 98 per cent of the 250 seni...
Accounting students cheat
in Sox First, on September 3, 2007
...
Accountants and auditors are supposed to be the gatekeepers that protect us from fraud. So it's a bit of a worry when we come across a study that finds accounting students are just as likely t...
Subprime meddling
in Sox First, on August 30, 2007
...us approach to mortgage accounting standards so that their clients can renegotiate bad loans. Now, auditors are supposed to be independent gatekeepers and politicians should not be putting them under... ...unting standards so that their clients can renegotiate bad loans. Now, auditors are supposed to be independent gatekeepers and politicians should not be putting them under any pressure. We have all s...
The Refco lawsuit
in Sox First, on August 22, 2007
...re. And now we're seeing the start of it.
Refco's trusts are now suing bankers and auditors for $2 billion, reports Bloomberg . And it's a big one. Bank of America, Deutsche Ban...
The Brocade case: now for the gatekeepers
in Sox First, on August 21, 2007
...ad already rejected Reyes' claims that Byrd was aware of the shenanigans. In her blog, Re The Auditors , Francine McKenna looks at the question of whether the gatekeepers, including the auditors...
Auditors off the hook in the Parmalat case
in Sox First, on August 13, 2007
...rope's biggest bankruptcy. Late last week, US District judhe Lewis A. Kaplan let Parmalat's auditors and bankers off the hook by dismissing lawsuits against them. The folks at Deloitte &...
Refco's delinquent community
in Sox First, on August 10, 2007
... here and here. Usually when there's corporate malfeasance, it involves a stack of people. Auditors look the other way, managers help themselves to the spoils and directors pretend nothing is...
Employee scorecards and the curse of the SOX
in Sox First, on June 26, 2007
...s of the internal control environment , the author argues that it's better than just relying on auditors because management's reporting of a weakness in the company's accounting activities... ...ion in order to separate the idiosyncratic views from those that reflect the company as a whole. An independent party outside of the organization should be retained to review the survey responses and ...
Watchdog targets "fair value" accounting
in Sox First, on June 9, 2007
...
The board that polices auditors has put the corporate world on notice that it's monitoring how companies and beancounters make the transition to Enron-style "fair value" accounting. ...
Audit rules eased
in Sox First, on May 28, 2007
...iness, not to mention heat coming from Congress and the Bush administration, the board that polices auditors has finally relaxed its contentious standard for auditing public companies. The new eased-...
Internal audit risk gaps
in Sox First, on May 18, 2007
...
Internal auditors seem to agree they're taking risk more seriously and acknowledge that huge resources are being thrown into compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley. But they're not ...
The New Accounting - Say Goodbye to the Old Bottom Line
in Businesspundit, on May 18, 2007
...oductory accounting classes. This has major implications for the stock market, accounting students, auditors, and corporate accounting departments. The one group that may benefit from this is value in...
Fraud and delinquent communities
in Sox First, on May 16, 2007
...-Oxley requirement that CEOs and CFOs certify reports to shareholders. It also found that external auditors were participants in one out of five (21 per cent) cases of alleged financial statement fra...
Watchdog slams Ernst & Young audits
in Sox First, on May 3, 2007
...there's more. Despite E&Y's assurances, the findings can leave you feeling uneasy about auditors....
Fannie Mae: more of the lawyers' picnic
in Sox First, on April 24, 2007
...berg . Whereas Fannie Mae reckons KPMG is guilty of "accounting malpractice ", the auditors have accused Fannie Mae of not disclosing information and of "repeatedly, systematical...
Unwinding Sarbanes-Oxley's red tape
in Sox First, on April 19, 2007
...f clear guidelines on what executives needed to check, companies were often forced to go to outside auditors. The result: endless and unnecessary management checks that cost the companies a fortune. ...
Judges' low opinion of auditors
in Sox First, on April 16, 2007
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Since Andersen went out of business for obstructing justice, auditors have been pushing hard for liability caps. It's something I have examined here , here , here , here and here . Now ... ...dges believe the standards of the average audit practice are high. Also, fewer believe auditors are independent. More than ever before, judges now feel auditors should be watchdogs for the public good...
Accountants and the Billy Rose Law of Investment
in Sox First, on April 10, 2007
...eferring to show-girls and horses but as Peterson points out, it applies equally to accountants and auditors. First off, the big accounting firms already make good money from the working capital of t... ...ber's idea is that it would undermine the idea that accountants and auditors are supposed to be independent gatekeepers. Outside investors would make it ripe for the kinds of conflicts of interest...
Mending SOX - more work ahead
in Sox First, on April 6, 2007
...ed, the Securities and Exchange Commission this week moved to finalise guidelines for companies and auditors to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. This is supposed to mark the final stage of easing the burde...
