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My new column is up @Going Concern
The US Treasury recently decided to vote its proportionate ownership interest in Citigroup to affirm reappointment of KPMG as Citi’s auditor for the 41st consecutive year.
Maybe Treasury married KPMG all over again because they’re cheap compared to what Goldman and AIG are paying PwC.
Maybe KPMG knows this client best – [...]
Given the pressures on costs and the longstanding ties some finance, audit, and accounting executives have with the accounting firms, it is not surprising that the weakening of the independence commitment may come from the companies themselves. What’s the downside for them? The potential for scrutiny by corporate governance experts and journalists? You can’t argue with a recession. And in the event of an accounting scandal or restatement, plaintiff’s lawyers will have an uphill battle to penetrate the impenetrable auditor liability shields and caps.
What’s lost in all of this discussion of efficiency and cost cutting?
Independence protects shareholder’s interests.
Not so long ago, Dennis Howlett and I went public with a bet:
Which Big 4 audit firm is the next to fail?
Dennis believes that I’m betting on PwC as next to fail. I don’t honestly remember committing to that, but I’m willing to go with it for the sake of argument. This is in spite of the fact that the other Big 4 have plenty to worry about and the next tier firms are in no way ready for prime time.
KPMG is being sued for $1bn by the liquidators of New Century, the collapsed subprime lender, in the first big case against an auditor arising from the current financial crisis. If the New Century trustee is successful, “it may embolden others to look more closely at the possibility of bringing [accounting] firms to some level of culpability for the things that happened,” that led to the credit crisis, Francine McKenna, president of McKenna Partners LLC, a corporate-governance consultancy, said in an interview in the Wall Street Journal.
There is at least one person who doesn’t have to worry about having a good job, at KPMG no less. Thomas Ray was the Chief Auditor and Director of Professional Standards for the PCAOB.
According to WebCPA:
Ray is joining KPMG as a partner in the firm’s department of professional practice in New York.
Thank you very much for maintaining a cynical tone during your feature on Mr. Welch and the new Mrs. Welch. In my mind, and it is a very personal opinion, Mr. Welch personifies everything that is wrong with US business.
The “victims” of the Bernie Madoff scandal are not taking their losses laying down. Why are so many suits suddenly being brought against the auditors of the funds that invested on behalf of their clients in the Madoff funds?
You may question my choice of title for this post. After all, it describes the end of the tax shelter prosecution of the KPMG 13. And it was former KPMG employees, not current KPMG employees or partners who cheered when federal Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed charges yesterday against them, 13 former employees of the accounting [...]
Update:
Chicago’s John “Dr. J.” Najarian co-founder of OptionMONSTER on the need for transparency when the assets bought by the US government are eventually sold.
On YouTube.
Part 2 from Jon Najarian is here.
I have been updating this information throughout the weekend as other banks failed and other deals have been done.
A summary of “the mother of all [...]
Here in the US, we are accustomed to the concept of a national practice for our Big 4 firms. Although each of the local offices, in each city, in each state has a Managing Partner and local partners, the firms are rarely separate legal entities. A partner is a partner of the National firm, not [...]
 Francine McKenna (@retheauditors) has more than twenty years of experience in consulting and professional services including tenure at two Big 4 firms, both in the US and abroad. For more info, click the "About" page link at the bottom of this page. |
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