Two Giant Banks, Seen as Immune, Become Targets [DealBook]
Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas are up first: "Federal prosecutors are nearing criminal charges against some of the world’s biggest banks, according to lawyers briefed on the matter, a development that could produce the first guilty plea from a major bank in more than two decades. […] Addressing those concerns, prosecutors in Washington and New York have met with regulators about how to criminally punish banks without putting them out of business and damaging the economy, interviews with lawyers and records reviewed by The New York Times show. The new strategy underpins the decision to seek guilty pleas in two of the most advanced investigations: one into Credit Suisse for offering tax shelters to Americans, and the other against France’s largest bank, BNP Paribas, over doing business with countries like Sudan that the United States has blacklisted."
Business Tax Breaks of $310 Billion Advance After Spat [Bloomberg]
The funniest part is the Democrats' bitching about "fiscal responsibility": "Democrats argued that the Republican plan is fiscally irresponsible, because it doesn’t include offsetting spending cuts or tax increases, and unfair as Republicans maintain that the cost of extending unemployment benefits should be covered. Democrats also complained about the uncertain fate of other tax breaks, such as those for hiring workers from disadvantaged groups and installing wind turbines.
Co-op Bank changes auditors after 40 years [Guardian]
KPMG loses out after the Financial Reporting Council announced it was investigating the 2012 audit.
BBC dumps KPMG as auditor after 18 years [LES]
EY will take it from here.
US doesn't have a rational tax policy: Jack Welch [CNBC]
If you prick ExxonMobil, does it not bleed? "Corporations sweat. They cry. They bleed. They do all these things," Welch told CNBC. "The idea that [companies] are just bricks and mortar is nonsense."
Forget about learning to code—to get rich in tech, become an accountant [Quartz]
That's a shitty headline from Quartz. Really, start-ups looking to go public want a CFO that has experience taking a company public. Accounting is only a small piece of that.
MIT undergrads to get $100 in bitcoin in digital money trial [Reuters]
Don't spend it all in one place: "Every undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next fall will be offered $100 in bitcoins in an experiment that students say will turn the prestigious university into one of the first places on the planet with widespread access to digital currency. […] Jeremy Rubin, a sophomore, and Dan Elitzer, an MBA candidate, raised half a million dollars from alumni and other sources to fund the experiment after coming up with the idea last month. The extra money will go toward infrastructure and education and the offer may eventually be extended to other students beyond undergrads."
We discussed it here, concluding that BofA didn't want to admit that their accounting department was teamed with chimpanzees.
Am I the only one who found it odd BofA didn't hold a conference call to discuss its 4 billion dollar goof?
— Matthew Goldstein (@MattGoldstein26) April 30, 2014
The Great Multitasking Myth [AWEB]
Face it: It's not good for your productivity.