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The graduation party’s come and gone. There’s a Mont Blanc in your limited edition Prada backpack. The economy is not getting any better, but friends, relatives coughed up decent cash and you headed to Barcelona and Bilbao with a few buds to check out the Gehry Guggenheim. Your start date is delayed until January and the offer letter has [...]
Startups, especially on the West Coast, are usually full of folks who’ve been involved in more than one. Sometimes that’s due to success – the company is acquired – and sometimes that’s because of failure. Startup junkies are always moving. The Zynga management team includes several alumni, including their CEO and CFO, of SupportSoft.
SupportSoft’s founder who is the current Zynga CEO, and Zynga’s CFO, have been out of SupportSoft for a while. Within five minutes I knew why. SupportSoft settled a class action law suit in 2007 for $10.7 million that alleged its then-CEO and CFO, Radha Basu and Brian Beattie, violated federal securities laws. They were accused of making false and misleading statements about the reasons for record revenues, resulting in the artificial inflation of the company’s stock price.
The SEC’s charges against Deloitte’s former Vice Chairman Tom Flanagan were settled on August 4th. The complaint, filed in a District Court in Chicago where Mr. Flanagan resides, details what the SEC could prove, within a reasonable amount of time. There were many more instances of illegal and unethical activity alleged by Deloitte in their [...]
There’s a great new update on the story of PwC’s cuts of more than 500 internal IT professionals in the Florida and Atlanta markets. It was written by Jeff Harrington at the St. Petersburg Times on Sunday August 8th. Harrington focuses primarily on the local impact of the cuts. He finds evidence that PwC promised [...]
Leaders of public companies, like policemen or firemen that do a job for money, also sign up for a public duty. As stewards of a public company, the CEO and CFO’s job is not a reward for years of service, an entitlement after achieving career objectives but a responsibility and honor that should be earned every day by setting an example for all those who work under them. The auditors serve the role of independent watchdog, guardian of shareholders’ interests in the capital markets. Their relationship to management should be adversarial – not friendly, cozy and comfortable.
On Thursday August 5th, I covered the PCAOB’s Open Meeting and wrote up a report for the FEI Blog. I’d like to make a few more comments about the meeting yesterday.
I was both surprised and very pleased when Chairman Goelzer announced that he’ll request Congress to amend Sarbanes-Oxley to open the PCAOB’s disciplinary proceedings to public view, in line with the SEC. I was also gratified. I made this suggestion and many times have pointed out the challenge to investors’ right to know about an important gatekeeper – the auditors.
Edith Orenstein over at the FEI Blog gives a quick rundown of all the interesting panels and speeches this week at the American Accounting Association (AAA) Annual Conference in San Francisco.
I was invited to participate on Panel 7.5: “Operating an Accounting Blog,”Moderated by: Bill McCarthy, Michigan State University. My fellow panelists are : Joe Hoyle, Teaching Financial [...]
The SEC did not issue a press release for this rule. Chairman Shapiro did not mention it in her July 27 speech that discussed actions the SEC was taking in response to the passage of the financial regulatory reform bill. It was not an explicit requirement of the Supreme Court decision regarding the PCAOB.
So where did it come from? Why is it necessary?
California Lawyer has a feature this month on “Ponzi’s Auditors” and I have two nice quotes. I’m talking about auditors’ responsibility for detecting fraud under SAS 99 and the doctrine of “in pari delicto” as it relates to the AIG case against PwC currently under review by the New York Court of Appeals.
…The SEC ignored [...]
 Francine McKenna (@retheauditors) has more than twenty-five years of experience in consulting and professional services including tenure at two Big 4 firms, both in the US and abroad. Look for my column, "Accounting Watchdog" at Forbes.com and "Accountable" at American Banker. For more information, click "About" at the bottom of this page. Your firm can sponsor this specialized news site. For more information contact Francine McKenna, fmckenna@mckennapartners.com |
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