|
||||||
 | ||||||
| ||||||
This is the fourth big insider trading case in the least few years against a senior tenured partner that betrayed the public’s trust. In none of the cases did the firm’s “extensive” and “comprehensive” independence compliance programs spot the behavior or the illegal actions. Stay tuned. There will be much more to this story, I guarantee.
I put two new columns up at Forbes recently that talk about JPMorgan, PwC, Senator Levin’s “Whale” hearings, and all the other stuff JPMorgan and Jamie Dimon are really worried about.
The issue of tax avoidance by corporations is a hot one. In the US and in the UK, legislators and pundits seeking “tax justice” have changed the discussion from one of tax breaks that stimulate “jobs and growth” to one of tax fairness to provide much needed funds for public works and public commitments in times of economic hardship. The Big Four audit firms play all sides like a fiddle.
You can’t throw a rock at a fraud or scandal nowadays without hitting three, sometimes all four, of the largest global audit firms providing one service or another. The Big Four global accounting firms make money whether clients survive and thrive or flail and fail.
Getco’s deal for Knight Capital was a good-old reverse merger, just like the chop suey the Chinese have been using to perpetrate frauds right under the SEC’s nose. Please read to the bottom. I don’t even have to make this stuff up anymore.
Ernst & Young gets a little bit of good news about Lehman liabilities but… Is it just me or are the auditor defense lawyers losing their touch?
When HP announced its intention to acquire Autonomy, the British data analysis firm now mired in accusations of serious fraud, Deloitte probably shed some enormous tears of joy. Deloitte can now openly replace those Autonomy audit fees with guilt-free consulting and lucrative alliance deals.
HP announced today it is writing down more than $5 billion, or almost half of the Autonomy acquisition price, because of “serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures” by Autonomy former executives. Deloitte was the auditor of Autonomy, a UK software firm acquired by HP in 2011 for $11.1 billion.
I wonder how PwC GRC Advisory partners feel knowing their multimillion dollar profits from the OCC/Fed foreclosure reviews will be used to pay three big settlements for audit failures at Colonial Bank and MF Global?
My column at American Banker last week focused on the latest PCAOB inspection report for KPMG. We’ve got three more “Big Four” inspections reports to come – Ernst & Young, Deloitte and PwC. Don’t be surprised if you see the same focus on loan loss and repurchase reserves and the same kinds of auditor deficiencies.
 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. For more information contact Francine McKenna, fmckenna@mckennapartners.com |
|
