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Friday Footnotes: Another Day, Another Lawsuit; Naughty CFO Let Loose; Grant Thornton Fined By PCAOB | 11.06.20

Tax Change Needed to Level the Playing Field for Small Businesses, Minorities and Women in Cannabis Marketplace
[NJCPA] Deducting business expenses is a routine and integral part of operating a business and is critical for a company to be profitable. However, cannabis businesses do not have access to this tax benefit even though it is available to all other New Jersey businesses. And that’s because New Jersey “piggybacks” onto Internal Revenue Code Section 280E, which prohibits any company illegally engaged in drug trafficking from deducting business expenses on personal or corporate income tax returns. Since cannabis is still illegal on a federal level, this makes sense for federal taxes, but not here in New Jersey where it’s now legal.

New lease accounting guidance proposed for federal entities [Journal of Accountancy] The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) and the Accounting and Auditing Policy Committee (AAPC) have proposed implementation guidance for federal-entity accounting standards and amendments to leases-related topics.

EY faces £1bn lawsuit over audit work for NMC Health [Financial Times] The administrators to NMC Health are preparing to sue EY for more than £1bn over claims the Big Four audit firm was negligent when it signed off the group’s accounts during a “long term” multibillion-dollar fraud. NMC Health, the former FTSE 100 healthcare group, collapsed this year after discovering that more than $4bn was apparently hidden from its balance sheet in a large-scale fraud that spanned operations from Abu Dhabi to London.

PwC buys mindfulness app for all staff amid coronavirus crisis [City A.M.] In a note to all partners and staff PwC chairman and senior partner Kevin Ellis said the benefits of meditation and mindfulness were well researched. He said mindfulness is a powerful tool for managing stress and anxiety, as well as increasing overall happiness.

Grant Thornton to Pay $750,000 to Settle Erickson Audit Lapses [Bloomberg Tax] Grant Thornton LLP has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle U.S. audit regulator charges that it missed warning signs that Erickson Inc. was at risk of going out of business and didn’t adequately understand its lease liabilities that resulted in a multiyear restatement.

Pandemic expands CFO responsibilities, sharpens focus on tech
[Consulting.us] CFO and finance executives are facing more responsibilities and demands from stakeholders as the pandemic continues to stress organizations, according to Protiviti’s annual Finance Trends Survey. The business consulting firm surveyed more than 1,000 finance leaders globally in July and August.

Wirecard CFO released from jail amid accounting fraud investigation [CFO Dive] Burkhard Ley, former CFO of Wirecard AG, an insolvent German payment processor startup, has been released on bail after spending more than three months in custody, Munich prosecutors said Monday.

One thought on “Friday Footnotes: Another Day, Another Lawsuit; Naughty CFO Let Loose; Grant Thornton Fined By PCAOB | 11.06.20

  1. Another PCAOB nothingburger.
    In 2018 the PCAOB said SEC registrants subject to PCAOB inspection had $43.2 trillion in market cap (MC).
    Erickson had 14 million shares outstanding at 12/31/15. In the last quarter of 2015, its share price ranged from $1.84 to $3.56. I’ll use $2.70 as an average. This gives Erickson a $37.8 million MC in the relevant period. $43.2 trillion / $37.8 million is: 1,142,857.
    Consider: the PCAOB disciplines Grant Thornton over an audit which the MC was not one millionth the total MC of all SEC registrants.
    Will the PCAOB investigate the audits of the banks which got about $3 trillion over the last 18 months of so from the Fed?
    Who is kidding whom here?
    Why does the PCAOB look at such insignificant audits?
    To distract the public’s attention from what it is not looking at.
    The audits of: Apple, Microsoft, Citicorp, Goldman Sachs, Etc.

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