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Accounting News Roundup: Female CFOs Getting the Shaft on Pay; Groupon Sued; Muddy Waters’ Latest Warning | 04.04.12

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Female CFOs in U.S. Paid Less Than Men, Study Finds [Bloomberg]
Male chief financial officers at U.S. companies are paid an average of 16 percent more than their female counterparts of similar age at companies with comparable market values, according to a study. The report by New York-based GMI Ratings, a corporate governance consulting firm, is based on an analysis of salaries of more than 1,900 CFOs at Russell 3000 Index (RAY) companies with a market value of $100 million to $25 billion in 2010. About 150 of the CFOs were women. Female CFOs received on average $1.32 million a year in total compensation, compared with $1.54 million for their male counterparts, according to a model based on the analysis. Compensation included base salary, bonuses, grant-date value of stock awards and stock option grants and retirement benefits. The firm said its model accurately predicted a CFO’s gender. The lower the salary, the more likely the CFO would be female.

Groupon sued by investor for accounting errors, IPO [MSNBC]
Groupon, the world’s largest online coupon website, is being sued by a shareholder for misleading investors about its financial results and concealing weak internal controls. According to a complaint filed in federal court in Groupon’s hometown of Chicago, the company overstated revenue, issued materially false and misleading financial results, and concealed how its business was not growing as fast and was not nearly as resistant to competition as it had suggested.
 
MF Global’s Inscrutable Accounting Error [CFO]

While securities dealer MF Global was melting down financially, the company’s finance and treasury departments — in conjunction with futures-market regulators — were on the hunt for the accounting error that wasn’t. MF Global’s general counsel and the CFO of its broker-dealer unit appear to never have had any evidence that faulty reporting had caused a deficit in customer-segregated accounts. But they persisted in their belief for as long as three days, according to a time line of the firm’s final days constructed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The reason? The amount was so large “it was too big to be anything else.”
 
Muddy Waters: Be wary of Hong Kong listed Chinese companies [CNN]
"There was a propensity for fraudulent Chinese companies to list their shares in the West, but I think that trend has slowed down quite a bit ever since short sellers like Muddy Waters have come onto the scene," Muddy Waters founder Carson Block told CNNMoney during an interview at the Council of Institutional Investors spring conference in Washington, D.C. "Now we're starting to hear rumblings out of Hong Kong," Block said. "Could Hong Kong be the next bastion of fraudulent revelations? It's difficult to say. But investors need to be wary." He noted that in the last month, Deloitte — one of the Big Four accounting firms — quit as auditor of two Hong Kong-listed Chinese companies.
 
TurboTax for iPad Was Better Than My Accountant [Gadgetwise/NYT]
Blasphemy!
 
Wealthy Smartphone Users Like Angry Birds and Facebook [TWR/WSJ]
Possibly related: Poor smartphone users like Angry Birds and Facebook.
Posted in ANR

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Young Women’s Pay Exceeds Male Peers’ [WSJ]
“The earning power of young single women has surpassed that of their male peers in metropolitan areas around the U.S., a shift that is being driven by the growing ranks of women who attend college and move on to high-earning jobs.

In 2008, single, childless women between ages 22 and 30 were earning more than their male counterparts in most U.S. cities, with incomes that were 8% greater on average, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data released Wednesday by Reach Advisors, a consumer-research firm in Slingerlands, N.Y.

The trend was first identified several years ago in the country’s biggest cities, but has broadened out to smaller locales and across more industries. Beyond major cities such as San Francisco and New York, the income imbalance is pronounced in blue-collar hubs and the fast-growing metro areas that have large immigrant populations.”

Burger King to be bought out at $24/share – CNBC [MarketWatch]
Whopperland’s stock is up 20% on the news that private equity shop 3G will shell out $24 a share.

KB Home says SEC investigation over [Los Angeles Times]
“Shares of Los Angeles-based KB Home soared on Wednesday after the home builder said an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into the company’s accounting and disclosure procedures had concluded and no enforcement action would be taken.

The company said in a statement Wednesday that it had received a letter from the commission closing the investigation, which began in October. Details of the inquiry weren’t disclosed. KB Home closed at $11.45, up $1.14, or 11%.

‘We are glad to share with our investors and employees that the matter is now behind us, as we continue to focus on restoring the sustained profitability of our home building operations and generating future growth’ KB Home Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger said.”


Heiress’ shady visitor [NYP]
“An accountant being investigated for his handling of 104-year-old Huguette Clark’s vast fortune has visited the hospitalized heiress in the past several days trying to get her to sign legal documents, The Post has learned.

Sources said they did not know if the accountant — convicted sex offender Irving Kamsler — obtained Clark’s signature on the documents after going to see her at Beth Israel Medical Center, but speculated that those files include a last will for the copper heiress.”

Bloomberg Stands By “Cowboy” Remark in State Cigarette Tax Dispute with Seneca Tribe [Tax Foundation]
Hizzoner isn’t apologizing to the Seneca Tribe after suggesting Governor David Paterson get a ‘cowboy hat and a shotgun’ to enforce New York’s cigarette tax. The Seneca Tribe wants an apology. Bloomy says it isn’t happening.