Accounting News Roundup: Bitcoins Still Up for Grabs; Deloitte Sending Some Back to School; UK Slaps a Couple of Second-tier Wrists| 09.06.12

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Romney tax return claim made in package left at Williamson GOP office [Tennessean]
The author of the online letter also states copies of Romney’s tax returns were left with the county Republican and Democratic offices, and on Wednesday morning both those organizations confirmed that they received suspicious looking packages containing a flash drive and a copy of the letter. Jean Barwick, executive director of the Williamson County Republican Party, held up a small manila envelope in her office that she said contained the drive and the letter. Scrawled in green lettering across one side are the words “For Rep Learders” (sic). Barwick said she found the package Friday and called the state GOP office to see if they’d received a similar envelope. Barwick did not call the police until Wednesday, she said, because she didn’t think the extortion attempt seemed credible. “A million dollars seemed kind of low,” Barwick said. “If you’re going to go for a million, why not go for $100 million.”

Libor Scandal Spurs U.K. Accounting Body To Draft Auditor Advice [Bloomberg]

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales said it will draft guidance to auditors in response to the scandal engulfing Libor and other interbank lending rates. The guidelines will enable auditors to provide “external assurance” on whether rate-setting is being done properly, the ICAEW said in an e-mailed statement. External assurance can help provide trust by “testing that there are robust processes in banks for submitting rates to form the benchmark and that those processes are being followed,” the ICAEW said.
 
AIG to Sell $2 Billion of AIA Shares [WSJ]

American International Group Inc. is seeking to raise around US$2 billion by selling more shares in AIA Group Ltd., its former pan-Asian life insurance unit, as it continues to repay the U.S. government bailout it received during the 2008 financial crisis. The U.S. insurer also said in a statement it plans to buy back another $5 billion in stock from the U.S. Treasury. AIG has been aggressively buying back shares this year and is expected to buy more from the Treasury this fall, as part of a push that could make the U.S. government a minority shareholder before the November elections and enable the company to fully repay its bailout sooner than expected. The Treasury Department sold $5 billion worth of shares in AIG last month, its fourth sale so far, reducing the government's stake to 55% and bringing down the amount the government needs to recoup from the bailout to $25 billion.

Employers Groom Hires for Graduate School [WSJ]
"It's a very significant investment, both financially and time-wise, but we see it as one of the most important things that we do in terms of developing our practitioners," says Julie Meehan, a principal at Deloitte who oversees undergraduate recruiting for the strategy and operations practice. Ms. Meehan says the broad perspective that business school provides helps with consulting assignments that require creative problem-solving. An M.B.A. also is a "great equalizer," filling in knowledge gaps for staffers who may not have been undergraduate finance majors or are unfamiliar with marketing strategy. Unlike in medicine and law, professionals in the business world can practice without attending graduate school or receiving some form of licensure. An M.B.A. may not be a legal requirement, but it's still very much a rite of passage at many companies. "You need to get your M.B.A. to move up the ranks" and become a principal in the strategy and operations group, Ms. Meehan says.

BDO and RSM Tenon reprimanded by ICAEW [Accountancy Age]
And fined £15,000 just for good measure.
 
Car crosses through 3 yards, hangs from power pole guy wire [KSL]

Jeris Herrera, 33, saw an unknown object in the road while headed west on 4500 South and swerved to avoid it, according to Lt. Justin Hoyal with the Unified Police Department. "It looked like either a garbage can or the bottom of a construction barrier," Herrera said. "Whatever it was, I wish I would have just hit that." When she realized she was headed into oncoming traffic, she swerved even further off the road. "She went through three different yards, fences, bushes, mailboxes, garbage cans, and finally came to rest on the guy wire of a power pole," Hoyal said. "I couldn't get my door out and I was up in the air and some very nice guy that I'd like to thank helped me out of my car," Herrera said.

 

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Who Will Rescue Financial Reform? [NYT]
A direct assault on Dodd-Frank would be so blatantly biased toward banks that it would be sure to provoke a public backlash. So the Republican plan is to delay and disrupt reform. The effort is partly ideological — an insistence that regulation is unnecessary, no matter the evidence to the contrary. It is also a campaign fund-raising ploy, because Wall Street will reward the opponents of reform. Of course, Democrats are themselves not indifferent to Wall Street campaign cash, which raises the question of how effectively they will counter the Republicans’ aims.

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Why No Warnings? Investors Press Audit Regulator [Forbes]
Francine McKenna rounds up the haps from last Thursday’s Standing Advisory Group of the PCAOB meeting.

COSO Contemplates Expansion of 5 Component Internal Control Framework Into 20+ Principles; Potential Impact On Sarbox 404 Assertions [FEI]
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The Washington Post Peddles Good TARP PR [JDA]
Check it out mostly for the graphic.


Networks, Advertisers Call New Plays Amid NFL Strife [WSJ]
Since the National Football League locked out its players about two weeks ago, some cable and broadcast networks have been preparing contingency plans to air alternative programming in case games are canceled this fall. Advertisers, who spend roughly $3 billion a year on commercials that run during NFL games, also are forging new plans and considering buying commercial time on other marquee programming should the work stoppage continue into the football season. Some advertisers already have bought commercials on Viacom Inc. television networks as a backup.

AstraZeneca settles tax dispute and saves $1bn [Guardian]
AstraZeneca has settled a long-running tax dispute in a deal which sees HM Revenue & Customs refund tax payments that will now go to America instead. The pharmaceutical company announced on Monday morning that US and UK tax authorities have reached an agreement over where it declares certain profits. The dispute over so-called “transfer pricing” dates back to 2002, and was the most significant of AstraZeneca’s ongoing arguments with tax authorities.

SEC Filing: Georgia Gulf Dismisses Deloitte & Touche; Engages Ernst & Young [CityBiz]
Georgia Gulf may not have been crazy about being told they have a material weakness.

What You Hate Most About Your Job [AOL]
“Everything” is a little too broad.