The SEC Put Out Its 2015 Highlight Reel

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

The SEC's fiscal year wrapped on September 30, so naturally, they wanted to take a victory lap with their enforcements results.

Among the accounting and auditing highlights brought up are:

There's loads of other non-accounting enforcement actions against firms like KKR, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Standard & Poor's, Goodyear, Avon, BNY Mellon. It goes on ad nauseum. All told, the SEC had 507 independent enforcement actions and $4.19 billion in disgorgement and penalties.

Not bad! But it's hard to get too excited when insider trading violations and their punishment are ludicrously inconsistent, clawback regulations are rarely enforced and the Chair has a ridiculous number of conflicts. There's even a petition out there calling on Mary Jo White to recuse herself from picking the next PCAOB chair. And Elizabeth Warren isn't happy, which is never good for you.

Hopefully, they put those on the ol' to-do list for 2016. But, for my sake, they do need to keep up the pace on accounting and auditing enforcement. I like to stay busy.

[SEC]

 

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A Few People Noticed That New Century Execs Settled with SEC

There were just a few reports late on Friday about New Century Execs settling with the SEC over the failure to make certain risk disclosures. However, it’s worth mentioning that this is still more coverage than the settlement that KPMG reached with New Century that we reported on in late June – still no press release – but that’s neither here nor there.


SEC statement:

On July 29, 2010, the Commission accepted settlement offers from three former officers of New Century Financial Corporation. Brad A. Morrice, the former CEO and co-founder; Patti M. Dodge, the former CFO; and David N. Kenneally, the former controller, consented to the relief described below without admitting or denying the allegations in the Commission’s Complaint. The settlement offers, which have been submitted to the Court for approval, are contingent upon the Court’s approval of a global settlement in In re New Century, Case No. 07-931-DDP (C.D. Cal.).

The Commission’s complaint alleges, among other things, that New Century’s second and third quarter 2006 Forms 10-Q and two late 2006 private stock offerings contained false and misleading statements regarding its subprime mortgage business. The complaint further alleges that Morrice and Dodge knew about certain negative trends in New Century’s loan portfolio from reports they received and that they participated in the disclosure process, but they did not take adequate steps to ensure that the negative trends were properly disclosed. The Commission’s complaint also alleges that in the second and third quarters of 2006, Kenneally, contrary to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, implemented changes to New Century’s method for estimating its loan repurchase obligation and failed to ensure that New Century’s backlog of pending loan repurchase requests were properly accounted for, resulting in an understatement of New Century’s repurchase reserve and a material overstatement of New Century’s financial results.

That “material overstatement” consisted of a $90 million profit in Q3 of ’06 that was actually a $18 loss.

Morrice, Dodge and Kenneally all agreed to cough up some of their ill gotten gains and were subjected to fines but they didn’t come close to Michael Dell sized proportions.

SEC Settles with Former Officers of Subprime Lender New Century [SEC]
Ex-New Century Managers to Pay $1.5 Million Over Subprime Lender’s Failure [Bloomberg]

Apparently the Porn Problem Has Spread from the SEC to the IRS

This is the last thing the IRS needs. Well, maybe next-to-last.


“An IRS employee is charged with having child pornography on a laptop computer that police said he left in a garbage bag in a wooded area in Sterling Heights. Alan E. Erickson, 45, of Sterling Heights is charged with one count of using a computer to commit a crime and five counts of possession of child sexually abusive material, officials said.”

Dumping a laptop in the woods? And child porn to boot? Jesus. You thought the death threats against IRS agents were bad before…

IRS employee charged in porn case [Detroit Free Press]

Image source: Sterling Heights Police via DFP

Mary Schapiro Wants Accountants to Get Better at Their Jobs

Did you work hard this past busy season? Did you toil away for hours and hours to provide exemplary client service? Did you take one for the team when that creeper client contact wanted to dance at the end-of-the-year party? Great. Well done, good and faithful capital market servant. But guess who still isn’t satisfied? The SEC Chair, Mary Schapiro. Why? Well, it’s becuase you’re still not meeting investors expectations and the SEC is hearing about it. Everyone is demanding the best and you’re simply not cutting it right now.

“At the SEC, we have heard from investors that they are not as confident as they could be, and they have areas in which we all could expect more from accountants, from accounting standards, from regulators and from those who provide assurance through the audit process,” she said. “I believe that, when your customer asks for more, especially after the challenges of recent years, you need to listen.”

So maybe this is what KPMG is talking about when they say things are going to the next level?

SEC’s Schapiro Says Investors Expect More from Accountants [AT]