The State Of Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance: The Protiviti Survey Results
By Francine • Jun 26th, 2011The results of Protiviti’s survey of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance are out. I like seeing viable alternatives to the Big Four audit firms.
Archive for June, 2011
CNBC’s Cramer Spits Into Wind On Clawbacks Of Fraudulent Bonuses
By Francine • Jun 25th, 2011CNBC’s JIm Cramer went off this week on the JP Morgan Securities settlement with the SEC. In his mind, someone, everyone got off too easy. It’s a familiar lament.
George Packer Talks About His New Yorker Article, “A Dirty Business”
By Francine • Jun 24th, 2011George Packer writes this week in the New Yorker magazine about the case against Raj Rajaratnam, the head of the Galleon hedge fund.
This afternoon, Packer answered readers’ questions in a live chat.
I got a question in about one of my favorite subjects, Section 302 prosecutions and the lack thereof.
Read the transcript, including Packer’s answer to me, here.
Say Anything: The Big Four Defense Of Overtime Exemptions
By Francine • Jun 20th, 2011Although the state and federal wage and hour laws governing eligibility for overtime pay are complicated, the public policy issues they present for audit firms are not.
One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others: How Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers Hid The Ball From Investors
By Francine • Jun 20th, 2011What’s the difference between Lehman/Hudson Castle – the structured investment vehicle (SIV) mentioned in the New York Times last week – and the SEC fraud charges against Goldman? Aren’t both about disclosure?
Just A Cog In The Big 4 Machine
By Francine • Jun 20th, 2011The Big 4 are still reeling them in like large mouth bass…
PricewaterhouseCoopers Headed For A Trial In California Overtime Case
By Francine • Jun 17th, 2011There’s one thing about litigation that everyone agrees on. Anything can, and sometimes does, happen.
EY Goes To Hong Kong For A Scandal
By Francine • Jun 17th, 2011I’m sometimes accused of being too hard on one firm or another. But that criticism is unfair. I don’t have to be biased to find fault with any one of them at any point in time. I just have to watch what they do—and what they say.
Two Wildly Different Stories About Deloitte: Or Are They?
By Francine • Jun 8th, 2011In the last few weeks, I’ve written two very different stories about Deloitte. Both stories bothered me, but in different ways, so I was compelled to write about the firm both in unsympathetic and sympathetic terms. In the end, neither story says much about the state of the audit industry and the pre-2011 regulation of the audit firms.
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, 