Carillion Liquidators Roast KPMG: “A Competent Auditor Would Have Detected the Misstatements”
The Carillion failure is still working its way through the courts and now KPMG is accused by Carillion’s liquidators of missing multiple red flags, the likes of which should not have been missed had KPMG had any clue what it is doing. So say the liquidators. WSJ: KPMG received £29 million from Carillion without qualifying […]
KPMG UK Somehow Won’t Be Getting a Record Fine From the Financial Reporting Council For Carillion Mess (UPDATE)
[UPDATE] The Queen’s KPMG was finally, officially fined £14.4 million by the Financial Reporting Council earlier this morning for all the stupidity that happened during the 2016 audit of collapsed construction and services company Carillion, as well as for the mistakes that occurred in its 2014 audit of IT software company Regenersis. KPMG UK and […]
KPMG UK Already Gearing Up For Massive Punishment Over Carillion Audit Failures
“It is of course for the tribunal to reach a conclusion on the allegations as they relate to the individuals concerned. Nevertheless, it is clear to me that misconduct has occurred and that our regulator was misled. The misconduct that this tribunal will hear about over the coming weeks is disturbing and upsetting for me […]
Black Friday Footnotes: Carillion Liquidator Wants Lots of KPMG Money; EY Can’t Handle the Truth; Mattel and PwC Settle with Investors | 11.26.21
Carillion Liquidator Seeks $336 Million From KPMG [Bloomberg] The U.K. government agency charged with liquidating Carillion Plc has lodged a claim at the high court against auditor KPMG, the Sunday Times reported. The official receiver has accused KPMG of negligence in its audit of the U.K. contractor and quantified claims of about 250 million pounds […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Wirecard Investors vs. EY, Australian Tax Office vs. PwC, Carillion vs. KPMG
Here’s a round-up of lawsuits filed against Big 4 firms in Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Ernst & Young Sued Over Wirecard as Accounting Woes Add Up [Bloomberg] Wirecard’s longtime auditor EY is being sued just days after the payment processing company’s headquarters were raided as part of a market-manipulation probe. The German lawsuit […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: FDIC vs. EY, Investors vs. Mattel and PwC, Carillion vs. KPMG
Federal regulator sues auditor Ernst & Young for negligence over First NBC collapse [New Orleans Advocate] The FDIC is suing Ernst & Young in the $1 billion failure of First NBC Bank in 2017, alleging that EY missed clear red flags related to several soured loans and failed to raise the alarm to the bank’s […]
KPMG U.K. Chairman Taking Heat for Defending Carillion Audit
An article published today by The Times in which KPMG U.K. Chairman Bill Michael defended the firm’s audit of Carillion is getting some reaction on Twitter—good for the newspaper, bad for Michael and KPMG. The article states: The chairman of KPMG has hit back at MPs in charge of the inquiry into the collapse of […]
Accounting News Roundup: Big 4 Get Share of Blame for Carillion and Apology Letters for Embezzlement | 05.16.18
Key findings from the MPs’ report into Carillion’s collapse [The Guardian] Two parliamentary committees spread the blame around for the collapse of the British construction company, with the Big 4 getting its fair share. The report called KPMG, Carillion’s auditor, “complicit” for “complacently signing off its directors’ increasingly fantastical figures.” Deloitte, the internal auditor, “too […]
Accounting News Roundup: Theranos’s Missing Audit Report; PwC’s Carillion Fees; Tax Planning Games | 03.21.18
The investors duped by the Theranos fraud never asked for one important thing [MW] Francine McKenna reports that that thing was a set of audited financial statements. So, did they not get them because a) the “smart money” isn’t so smart or b) they don’t believe an auditor’s opinion is worth anything? PwC charges more […]
Accounting News Roundup: Forever Tax War; GE’s Fresh Blood; KPMG’s Carillion Excuse | 02.26.18
Washington’s Fight Over Taxes Is Only Beginning [NYT] With so many provisions expiring, especially for individuals, and the GOP taking a quick and dirty approach to lawmaking, tax pros will have to stay on their toes for years. “This is anything but tax simplification,” KPMG’s vice chair of tax said. Treasury Official, Critical of Parts […]
Accounting News Roundup: KPMG’s Audit of Carillion; New Tax Law, One Month On; Happy Tax Season | 01.29.18
KPMG to be investigated over Carillion auditing [The Guardian] The U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council probe “will cover 2014 to 2016 and additional audit work carried out during 2017,” including “whether KPMG breached any rules, in particular the ethical and technical standards for auditors.” KPMG said it would fully cooperate. The Tax Law, Just One Month […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Small Firms Beg For Big 4 Knowledge; FreshBooks Leak; Tech in Lieu of Accountants | 4.10.23
It’s Monday. Yay. Here’s what’s going on. Smaller accounting firms have asked Big 4 to share their expertise [FT]: Smaller rivals have called on the UK’s Big Four accounting firms to share their audit expertise and technology, but partners at the big firms say they fear being accused of breaking competition law if they do […]
Friday Footnotes: Deloitte Partner Scammed By Other Deloitte Partner; Big 4 Legal Grows; A $3.5 Billion Error | 2.17.23
Big 4 EY expects ‘massive approval’ in vote to split up company [Reuters] Partners in EY are expected to give approval for spinning off the company’s consulting arm and listing it on the stock market by the end of the year, a senior EY official said on Tuesday. Over 13,000 partners – out of EY’s […]
Friday Footnotes: Opinions!; EY’s Blockchain Aspirations; KPMG Junior Reprimanded | 9.30.22
Psst. While you’re here, have you thought about getting on our newsletter? No? Alright. Big 4 Average income of Deloitte’s partners in UK and Switzerland tops £1m [The Guardian] Partners at Deloitte in the UK and Switzerland will receive an average income of more than £1m each for the second year in a row, after […]
Hoping Everyone Has Forgotten About All the Scandals, KPMG UK Is Bidding for Government Contracts Again
Late last year KPMG UK decided to stop bidding for government contracts for a bit while they worked out some scandals, piss poor audit quality, and client collapses. Well, it wasn’t so much that they decided but rather that the government threatened them and told them to get their shit together or they’d be banned […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: EY Sucks at Auditing; Accounting Headaches; KPMG Partner Banned | 7.25.22
Some headlines to get you started on this fine Monday: KPMG partner banned from accounting after misleading regulator over Carillion. KPMG fined £14.4 million after the firm admitted to providing false and misleading information to its regulator during spot checks on audits of construction firm Carillion and outsourcing firm Regenersis. The spread of ESG labels […]
Friday Footnotes: Which Firm Puts in the Most Hours?; Clients Pay for the Talent War; Spotting Burnout | 5.20.22
Boring No More: Accountants, Auditors See Themselves as Creative, Curious and Adventurous, Study Shows [PR Newswire] Creative, curious and adventurous may not be traits normally associated with accountants and auditors, but a recent study shows that’s just how a growing number of industry professionals see themselves. The research – conducted by leading software provider Caseware […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG’s Idea of a Fun Summer; IRS Eats Their Homework; Downsized GT Downsizes | 5.13.22
Junior KPMG auditor ‘should not lose his home’ for misleading regulator, says tribunal [Financial Times] A former junior KPMG auditor should not receive a fine so large it could force him to sell his matrimonial home, a tribunal has said. The UK accounting regulator asked the industry tribunal to fine Pratik Paw £50,000 and ban […]
Compensation Watch ’22: Big 4 Firm With the Most Negative Publicity In the U.K. Tries to Change All That By Giving Staff Raises of At Least £2,000
If you’re a regular visitor to this website, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which Big 4 firm we’re referring to: Carillion, loads of fines from the Financial Reporting Council, chairman’s rant leads to his resignation, Carillion, “unacceptable” bank audits, partners who are bullies, lawsuits, and layoffs. And did we mention Carillion? Yes, […]
Friday Footnotes: Firms on India Hiring Spree; PCAOB Heads Overseas; PwC Lets You See Your Family This Summer | 5.6.22
Mesa grandma, 25-year-old accountant share love of Phoenix Suns [Arizona’s Family] JoAnne Ralph and Ben Barchilon have a special bond, and it all started with their love of the Phoenix Suns. “It’s just wonderful to have another grandson,” said Ralph. “It upsets my granddaughter because she says ‘I’m not sharing you!’ And I said, yes […]
In Non-Russia-Ukraine War News, KPMG UK Screwed Up Another Audit
Let’s take a break from what’s going on right now in Ukraine to tell you something we’ve written a lot about in recent years and that we enjoy writing about: KPMG UK being bad at auditing. While we await KPMG’s punishment for that whole Carillion debacle, the Financial Reporting Council announced on March 8 that […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG Still On Its Bullsh*t; Here’s Why You’re Burned Out; EY Gives Itself a Hand(ie) | 2.18.22
This is why so many accountants are burned out and quitting right now [Fast Company] “If you go into investment banking or medicine, the financial ROI is worth the long hours. It’s not worth it in accounting. A junior accountant could be making $80,000 a year. A bank teller could be at $55,000 a year, […]
Friday Footnotes: Grant Thornton Flees; Hunting Down Auditors; Getting Students Hyped About Accounting | 2.4.22
Talent shortage turns audits into tactical issue [CFO Dive] As in other parts of the economy, the auditing field is dealing with a war for talent, driven in part by the rise of remote work, which has opened doors to sought-after accountants looking for opportunities elsewhere. And technology changes have led to accountants getting offers […]
So to Recap, Partners At the Largest Accounting Firms In the UK Are Swimming In Money
On Tuesday morning we got a tip from a source across the pond confirming the big news of the day at the Queen’s KPMG: Big pay day at KPMG UK for the partners. Unbelievable. Treat the staff rough but still come out on top. We’ve written a lot in the past few years about how […]
Friday Footnotes: Is Work Wrecking Your Body?; Ex-PwC Associate Gets Rich; AICPA to IRS: Do More | 1.28.22
6 red flags your body is breaking down from overwork [Fast Company] “There are two major ways that overwork can reduce health and longevity,” writes BBC contributor, Christina Ro. “One is the biological toll of chronic stress, with an uptick in stress hormones leading to elevated blood pressure and cholesterol.” She continues: “Then there are […]
PwC’s UK Head Kevin Ellis Is Unhappy—There Could Be Relief
How much concern do we feel for Kevin Ellis? He should sit pretty—senior partner of the UK firm of PwC, which in 2021 clocked up record global revenue of $45 billion. The average profit of his UK partners was a league-leading £868,000, and Ellis himself in 2020 took home a handsome £4.4 million. Instead, this week’s press attention […]
KPMG UK’s Piss-Poor Auditing Is Once Again Coming Back to Bite Them In the Ass
As the UK’s audit cops are kicking back and watching KPMGers throw each other under the bus and a former audit partner feign ignorance about documents being forged during a tribunal hearing on the clown show that was the firm’s auditing of Carillion, the Financial Reporting Council decided to give KPMG a small taste of […]
Audit Firms Are Making More Money Than Ever But Their Auditing Still Sucks, Says Guy
For today’s episode of “What Can We Rag on Big 4 Firms For” we’re going to dive into this article I came across this morning in Fair Observer, an independent outlet which I’ve never heard of but hey, any article that bashes Big 4 firms is OK in my book. Let’s be real, visiting Going […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG Partner Blames Juniors; Desperate Firms Look to India For Talent; EY’s Old Digs | 1.14.22
Carillion tribunal: Former KPMG staff turn on each other [The Guardian] The former KPMG partner in charge of auditing Carillion’s accounts before its collapse has blamed his more junior colleagues for misleading regulators, as former team members turned on each other during a tribunal hearing allegations against the firm and six individual auditors. Looking abroad: […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG Discipline Looms; Whistleblower Gets 2nd Chance; Firing Auditors | 12.17.21
Deloitte U.S. CEO on the past year’s business challenges and what’s ahead in 2022 [Fortune] “Many came into the year thinking that 2020 was the unprecedented year and things would calm down,” Ucuzoglu said. “Yet you could argue there have actually been more twists and turns [in 2021]. The pandemic is by no means behind […]
Friday Footnotes: PwC Germany Raided; BDO Ballers; Deloitte’s Unexpected New Hiring Push | 12.3.21
Partners at mid-tier accountant BDO paid more than at EY [Financial Times] BDO, the UK’s fifth-largest accounting firm by revenue, paid partners a record average of £760,000 before tax in the year to the end of June, surpassing the £749,000 paid out by EY. PwC Germany Offices Raided by Police in Tax Fraud Investigation [Bloomberg […]
FRC Fines Grant Thornton UK For Something We’re All Used to Grant Thornton UK Doing
A little over a month after being fined more than £2.3 million by the Financial Reporting Council for that whole Patisserie Valerie mess, Grant Thornton got called to the principal’s office once again for audit failures—this time for its 2015, 2016, and 2017 audits of outsourcing company Interserve, which went into administration in 2019. GT […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG Lied; EY Works For Free; Macaroni and Cheating | 9.3.21
KPMG faces complaint of providing ‘false’ information on Carillion audit [Reuters] KPMG allegedly provided “false and misleading” information about its audits of collapsed builder Carillion and data erasure company Regenersis for regulatory checks, Britain’s accounting watchdog said on Wednesday. EY teams up with NYC to offer pro bono advice to Black businesses [Consulting.us] Through the […]
Audit Market Caps In the UK: The Financial Times Fails a Math Test
“The Glacial Pace of Audit Reform Needs To Speed Up” The Financial Times might wish to reconsider this headline, above its editorial of late last week. Global climate change considered, the metaphor may be more apt than intended, as the likely fate of the world’s glaciers is their tragic and accelerating collapse into muddy puddles amid massive fields […]
Audit ‘Reform’ in the UK: Hello … Is Anybody There?
It’s one thing to discuss the breadth of the UK government’s March 18 consultation paper, “Restoring Trust in Audit and Corporate Governance,” with its 98 questions spread over 232 pages, as I did recently in a conference mixing academics and practitioners. It’s quite another, and thoroughly dispiriting, to observe the public silence on the likelihood […]
Audit ‘Reform’ In the UK: The Government Finally Speaks, and Says Little
On March 18, the UK government weighed in with its long-promised consultation paper (the “Consultation), “Restoring Trust in Audit and Corporate Governance.” Ninety-eight questions, spread over 232 pages, contain much that is cautious and little that is innovative. The problem is, what is cautious would not innovate, and what would innovate is not cautious. For another day, […]
Friday Footnotes: Troubled KPMGer Kicks Rocks; Stay Home, Auditors; Grant Thornton Plays Defense | 4.2.21
Partner who led KPMG’s audit of Carillion leaves Big Four firm [Financial Times] The partner who led KPMG’s audit of Carillion, the collapsed government contractor, has left the Big Four firm as the UK accounting regulator’s investigation into the scandal reaches an advanced stage. IRS provides details on April 15 postponement [Journal of Accountancy] On […]
Friday Footnotes: Costly Audit Mistakes; No Bonus For You!; Accounting Education Lags Behind | 03.19.21
Bonuses Are Targeted in U.K. Crackdown on Audit Scandals [Bloomberg] Top executives at companies hit by accounting scandals could lose their bonuses under U.K. proposals for beefed-up regulation after a wave of corporate collapses including Carillion Plc and travel firm Thomas Cook Group Plc. UK audit reform set to cost businesses more than £430m a […]
New SOX In the U.K.? It’s (Probably) Coming Soon
The February gloom was broken recently by the news that the British government will be introducing reforms targeting company financial reporting and audit oversight. In truth, none of this should be a surprise. There have been several accounting scandals in recent years where the directors of various companies have been unscrupulous and their external auditors […]
Uh-Oh, This Isn’t Looking Good for KPMG U.K.
From Reuters today: Britain’s accounting regulator said it has delivered its initial report into KPMG’s audit of builder Carillion, an indication that apparent rule breaches have been found. The construction company’s collapse in 2018 angered lawmakers who called on the Competition and Markets Authority to consider breaking up top accountants to increase competition and auditing […]
Friday Footnotes: A Spate of Scandals; Client Acceptance; Fed Lending | 7.17.20
AICPA Digital Assets Practice Aid Examines Client Acceptance and Continuance [CPA Practice Advisor The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has updated its Practice Aid Accounting for and Auditing of Digital Assets, to include nonauthoritative guidance on how to audit digital assets. This new material will complement accounting guidance issued last year. It is based on […]
Friday Footnotes: Dementia Hitting Clients; CPA Exam Fee Break?; A Big 4 Shake-Up | 3.6.20
Nearly Half Of CPA Advisors See Dementia In Some Clients [Financial Advisor] Nearly half of CPA financial planners report seeing a client with dementia for the first time ever in the past year, but only 17% of planners say they have created plans for dealing with client incapacitation, a new report says. The AICPA’s Personal […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG Gets a Reprieve; PwC’s Crypto Bet; Burned-Out CPA Chills Out | 1.10.20
A Houston CPA felt a slow-burning burnout, so she traded skyscrapers for sled dogs [Houston Chronicle] It was time for Anastasia Gill to leave Houston. As a certified public accountant for two major accounting firms since her late-20s, she felt that creeping, desperate feeling of burnout settling in. “Both were really stressful jobs. I would […]
Friday Footnotes: Which Big School Tops CPA Exam Lists?; PCAOB Goals; Big 4s Say FINE | 12.27.19
Ed. note: Welcome to the final Friday Footnotes of the decade! We hope you enjoy these weekly wrap-ups of news around the profession we found noteworthy. As always, if you have a suggestion for a story you think we should share with the class, give us a shout. Happy New Year! -AG BYU is tops […]
It’s Good Being a Deloitte U.K. Equity Partner These Days
The big news out of the Queen’s Big 4 yesterday wasn’t that Deloitte U.K.’s 2019 revenue (which also includes income from Switzerland) increased 10.9% from £3.58 billion in 2018 to £3.97 billion. Nope. The big news (or good news if you’re an equity partner at Deloitte) was: Hundreds of partners at the UK arm of […]
WhatsApp, KPMG? U.K. Partner Given the Heave-Ho Over Messages He Sent
More hijinks going on at KPMG U.K., as reported yesterday by the Financial Times: KPMG has forced out the head of one of its core businesses in Britain after an investigation into his conduct involving messages sent on WhatsApp. Tim Howarth, head of financial services consulting at KPMG, is the third senior partner to be […]
Can the Big 4 Survive the U.K. Regulators?
Ed. note: Jim Peterson, a 19-year veteran of Arthur Andersen’s internal legal group, has been writing since 2002 about the issues and challenges confronting the Big Audit model, including as an occasional guest here. Since last winter, Jim has been covering the intense public criticism in the U.K. of the performance and business model of […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG Pulls Out; Taxpayers Lose an Advocate; a Deloitte Let Down | 8.9.19
CannTrust says KPMG withdraws audit report [Reuters] Cannabis producer CannTrust Holdings Inc said on Friday its auditor KPMG LLP has withdrawn its report on the company’s financial statements for full-year 2018 and its interim report for the three month period ended March 31. KPMG’s decision was prompted after CannTrust cautioned against relying on its financial […]
Why Grant Thornton Quitting As Auditor of Sports Direct Matters
In an ordinary midsummer news slump, only yawning disinterest would greet the July 29 news of Grant Thornton’s notice to the U.K. authorities of its intent to resign as auditor of troubled retailer Sports Direct International plc. The times are not ordinary; the cauldron of auditor criticism has bubbled since the collapse of Carillion in […]
What Price Wrong-Doing? Sanctions Against KPMG Are Complicated
“Sell in May and go away” was an investors’ adage invoked as vacation strategy in a more genteel era. Returns in the summer were said to lag the rest of the year—and in any event, that’s how brokers justified their holiday cottages on the eastern seaboard. This year the maxim has twice failed my attempt […]
U.K.’s Audit Regulator Wants to Find Out Exactly Why KPMG Is Such a Hot F*cking Mess
From the Wall Street Journal: The U.K. watchdog for accounting and audit on Tuesday launched an independent review into the governance, controls and culture at KPMG LLP’s U.K. audit unit. The Financial Reporting Council will examine KPMG’s risk management, its controls and the behavior of partners and other employees in the audit practice. This first-of-its-kind […]
KPMG France Just Poached 130 Lawyers From a French Law Firm, Which Is Understandably Pissed
In Going Concern’s nine-plus-year history, Caleb and Adrienne have chronicled many, many instances of “competitive poaching” among the Big 4 firms. PwC and KPMG, in particular, have a long history of poaching from one another. But with the Big 4 firms’ legal brands showing huge growth among alternative legal service providers, what is starting to […]
According to Some List, Big 4 CEOs Are Among the Best ‘Brand Guardians’ in the World
It’s listicle time, you guys. This one comes from an outfit called Brand Finance, which calls itself “the world’s leading independent branded business valuation and strategy consultancy.” At today’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Brand Finance released its Global 500 report, which ranked the world’s 500 most valuable brands. The report also ranked the […]
An 8% Drop in Pay Might Be the Reason Why Some Grant Thornton U.K. Partners Were Pissy at CEO
We’re just spitballin’ here. From Economia: [Grant Thornton] said on Friday its average profit per partner fell 8% from £403,000 to £373,000 in 2017/18. Ouch! Of the top six accounting firms in the United Kingdom, this puts Grant Thornton sixth, by quite a bit, in average partner pay for the 2017-18 financial year: Deloitte: £832,000 […]
KPMG Is Thankful for SOX
I was kinda wondering about this myself, but I figured the answer would be no. From Tammy Whitehouse of Compliance Week: KPMG is under fire in the U.K. for diminishing audit performance, particularly in connection with the collapse of British construction firm Carillion. The firm has reportedly advised its partners internally that it would halt all […]
KPMG Gets One-Year Auditing Ban in Oman
2018 has been a no-good, rotten year for KPMG. The firm has been embroiled in accounting scandals in the United States and South Africa, was told by the United Kingdom’s accounting regulator that its audit quality sucks, defended an indefensible audit of the now-collapsed Carillion in the U.K., was fined £4.5 million in the U.K. […]
KPMG U.K. Is Giving Up Non-Audit Work on FTSE 350 Clients. Will the Other Big 4 Firms Follow?
So, Sky News broke some pretty big news in the United Kingdom earlier this morning regarding the House of Klynveld: KPMG is to cease undertaking non-audit work for the FTSE-350 companies whose accounts it supervises, becoming the first of the ‘big four’ firms to make such a pledge in the aftermath of scandals surrounding the […]
Financial Reporting Council’s Skipper Is Jumping Ship
Stephen Haddrill, beleaguered chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, the audit regulator in the United Kingdom, is reportedly to debark by the end of the year. No surprise. Haddrill has been a marked man since early this year, his agency targeted in Parliament as “toothless,” “useless,” and “ineffective” amid an outbreak of outrage over the collapse of the […]
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before: FRC Reprimands KPMG U.K. for Crappy Audit
When it comes to the Financial Reporting Council and KPMG audits, it must be like shooting fish in a barrel. This time, the U.K. accounting watchdog fined KPMG £2.1 million ($2.7 million) on Aug. 20 following the Big 4 firm’s admission of misconduct on the audit of fashion company Ted Baker Plc’s financial statements in […]
KPMG U.K. Lawyers Up Because Not Breaking the Law is Hard, You Guys
The Financial Times did not hold back in its headline announcing the news on KPMG U.K.’s latest hire earlier this week: KPMG appoints risk management chief after accounting scandals. Ouch. Here, KPMG, you might need this. So just who is this brave individual willing to take on a brand-new role at a scandal-plagued accounting firm? […]
Does the ‘P’ in KPMG Stand For ‘Probes?’
Because we have two new probes into KPMG to tell you about. First, two weeks after the quality of its audit work was called “unacceptable” by the Financial Reporting Council, KPMG is being probed by the United Kingdom’s accounting watchdog over its audit of British beverage wholesaler Conviviality’s financial statements, according to the Financial Times. […]
U.K. Accounting Regulator Chides KPMG For ‘Unacceptable’ Decline in Audit Quality
And here I thought Phil Mickelson’s meltdown on the 13th green at the U.S. Open on June 16 would be the worst thing to happen to KPMG this week. From Bloomberg: KPMG’s audit work in the U.K. is of an unacceptable standard, Britain’s accounting regulator said, fueling calls to reform the industry, including dismantling the […]
Accounting News Roundup: The Big 4 Oligopoly; HoweyCoins; Phone Bans | 05.17.18
KPMG chair calls Big Four an ‘oligopoly’ after Carillion collapse [FN] As usual, the Brits are little more forthright about their failings than their American counterparts. Where KPMG US CEO Lynne Douthie wrote vaguely about the alleged conspiracy of former partners, but beamed about how awesome the firm is, Bill Micheal, the UK chairman, admitted […]
Accounting News Roundup: The Big 4 Break Up Debate and H&R Block’s Shred Party | 03.22.18
Should the Big Four accountancy firms be split up? [FT] Natasha Landell-Mills argues for, and Jim Peterson against, the forced spinning off of the Big 4 audit practices. Both make compelling points. Here’s Landell-Mills: “Lasting reform depends on auditors working for shareholders, not management. […] Lack of scrutiny creates space for conflicts of interest.” And […]
Off-Balance Sheet Liabilities: Still Got It!
If you were worried that the heyday of companies using accounting rules to stash gazillions of dollars in debt out of sight was over, you can rest easy, friend. The Wall Street Journal reports on a Moody’s analysis by Trevor Pijper that found that defunct U.K. contractor Carillion used loose rules to keep about half a […]
Accounting News Roundup: Lecturing Auditors; Accounting for Celebrity Taste; C Corp Fever | 02.23.18
MPs turn fire on KPMG and Deloitte partners over Carillion [FT] There was an auditor flogging in the U.K. with the usual theatrics: “I would not hire you to do an audit of the contents of my fridge, because when I read it, I would not know what was actually in my fridge or not,” […]
Accounting News Roundup: Whistleblowers; Big 4 Impunity; A Big Accounts Receivable Error | 02.22.18
Supreme Court Curbs Protections for Whistleblowers [WSJ] If you or someone you know is thinking about blowing the whistle on some shady behavior, forget about reporting it internally; take your tip to the Securities and Exchange Commission if you want anti-retaliation protection under Dodd-Frank. Naturally, this came out of a case of accounting shenanigans: The […]
Accounting News Roundup: Poaching a Tax Partner and a Big 4 Feast | 02.13.18
King & Spalding Adds New York Tax Partner from KPMG [TAL] Kevin Glenn, a 22-year vet of the House of Klynveld, is now complete: “Glenn said it was a ‘lifetime-long aspiration’ to become a law firm partner.” FWIW, he doesn’t expect the Big 4 to “make significant inroads” in the U.S. legal market. That sounds […]
Accounting News Roundup: Too Much Tax Cuts; ‘Baller’ Stock Offerings; Pot Banking | 02.06.18
Investors Fear the Tax Cuts Will Work Too Well [NYT] Andrew Ross Sorkin writes that “Investors believe his policies to stoke growth are going to work so well that they will overheat the economy, and force the Federal Reserve to try to slow things down by raising interest rates faster than expected.” IPO Shortcuts Put […]
Accounting News Roundup: Competition for Big 4 Might Be Nice; Big Postcards; RSM, EY Go Shopping | 01.31.18
Calls for more scrutiny of top accounting firms after Carillion collapse [The Guardian] Stephen Haddrill, the head of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in the U.K., told some MPs that “there should be more competition in the major accounting and audit area” and also that he’d be asking the country’s competition regulator to take another […]
Accounting News Roundup: Who Else at KPMG Knew About Stolen Info?; The Revolving Door; Pot and IFRS | 01.24.18
KPMG indictment suggests many who weren’t charged knew regulator data was stolen [MarketWatch] Francine McKenna’s dive into the indictment surfaced with a disturbing possibility: “at least five more unnamed KPMG partners and one outside consultant either knew or chose to ignore the illegal source of the information.” Some Accountants Got Caught in the Revolving Door […]