Archive for the ‘You Can Quote Me On That’ Category

Benjamin Wey Sent Me A Threatening Email About AgFeed

By Francine • Apr 3rd, 2014

I received a threatening email yesterday from Chinese stock promoter Tianbing “Benjamin” Wey, whose New York Global Group (“NYGG”) was closely affiliated with the failed, fraudulent Chinese hog producer AgFeed during the period under litigation by the SEC and shareholders. He did not like my mention of his relationship to AgFeed, its auditor and its executives in a recent post about AgFeed’s audit firms. His claims are not only strange but wrong.

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Not That Satisfying: SEC Slams KPMG For Independence Violations

By Francine • Jan 28th, 2014

It’s been almost three years since I first broke the story of KPMG’s loaned tax staff arrangement with audit client GE. On January 24 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced an $8.2 million settlement with KPMG over violations of auditor-independence rules. The wheels of justice turn very slowly. But the GE case was not one of the three cited as the subject of the enforcement action.

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Jamie Dimon (And JP Morgan) Besieged

By Francine • Aug 20th, 2013

A blog post at Medium.com last Friday updated everyone with the latest on the JP Morgan “Whale” traders who were indicted last week and assorted other energy trading and mortgage related investigations. But there’s more!

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The Economic Significance of Accounting and the Key Role of Integrity in the Profession

By Francine • Jul 14th, 2013

Robert Ricketts, Texas Tech University and Rawls College of Business accounting department chairman, invited me to speak at his school last April. Here’s a link to the presentation, an excerpt and some additional comments on recent news.

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Berkshire Hathaway and Swiss Re: It Wasn’t Really A Win-Win

By Francine • May 8th, 2013

Like a lot of things Buffett and Berkshire, there’s more to the Swiss Re dispute resolution story than the snappy repartee tells you.

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How KPMG Explains Scott London To The Accounting Professors

By Francine • Apr 29th, 2013

Here’s how KPMG Chairman John Veihmeyer explained Scott London’s inside trading and the firm’s response to accounting professors, an important stop in the audit industry supply chain.

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E&Y, Their Audit Client Wal-Mart, and Value Pricing

By Francine • Mar 23rd, 2013

This post about Ernst & Young’s aggressive tax advice to audit client Wal-Mart was originally posted October 29, 2007. It’s worth everyone – I’m talking to you SEC and PCAOB – taking another look at this given Wal-Mart’s new Mexican bribery problems and the SEC investigation of Ernst & Young for tax lobbying to audit clients. (Ernst & Young has been silent and left out of most media discussion about Wal-Mart’s FCPA problems in Mexico and elsewhere.)

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Video Posted: McKenna Speaks At AAA-Accounting Program Leaders Group Annual Meeting

By Francine • Mar 19th, 2013

I’m in San Diego at the Accounting Program Leaders Group/Federation of Schools of Accountancy annual seminar. I spoke Sunday on the profession and its professionals.

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McKenna Speaks At 2013 AAA Audit Section Midyear Conference

By Francine • Jan 21st, 2013

I was in New Orleans this past long Martin Luther King Day weekend to speak at the American Accounting Association Auditing Section Midyear Conference. Here are my slides and text of my remarks.

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Will PwC Continue To Ensure Integrity of Oscar Voting? You Get What You Pay For

By Francine • Jan 13th, 2013

PwC’s professional role as the auditor of the Academy’s financial statements and reviewer and signer of its tax return is a big deal to the Academy’s members, its grantees, and to the IRS. However, as my Forbes piece details, PwC doesn’t apparently charge much for its statutory audit and tax review services, let alone the rest of the consulting work they do at awards time.

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