Olympus Sues Former Chairman [WSJ]
Olympus Corp. has filed lawsuits against former Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and several other individuals the company deems responsible for its recently discovered accounting scandal, a person familiar with the matter said Monday, as the Japanese camera maker struggles to move on from one of Japan's biggest corporate accounting scandals and repair its tattered reputation. Olympus filed the lawsuits Sunday to seek damages from the individuals, the person said, adding that they included former Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori and former company auditor Hideo Yamada. The person didn't name any of the other individuals or indicate how many people in total are being sued. The person also didn't say whether current board directors are among the individuals in question, or how much the company is seeking in damages.
Experian CFO Paul Brooks dies [Reuters]
British credit information firm Experian on Monday announced the death of chief financial officer Paul Brooks. "Paul died suddenly this weekend at his home in California. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Paul's family at this time," the company said in a statement. Brooks had been Experian's finance chief since October 2001, when he joined the group from automotive distributor Inchcape. "Paul was a great friend, a talented colleague, and an inspirational leader and will be greatly missed by all those who had the pleasure of working and dealing with him," Experian chairman John Peace said.
Drug dealer blew cover by throwing his money around [PPG]
Victor Allen was getting away with selling large amounts of cocaine from his Monroeville home until the Internal Revenue Service noticed something fishy about his finances. Tax agents were alerted to deposits into the bank account of another person, which were suspiciously structured to avoid triggering mandatory reporting to the federal government. The account holder, it turned out, was a relative of Mr. Allen's girlfriend. The IRS later calculated that in 2006 Mr. Allen made $298,302 selling cocaine. And even though the income was illegal, he should have paid $86,687 in taxes on it. Instead, he reported business losses of $54,163 that year, and paid no taxes. Despite that, he was paying a mortgage, in cash, and buying cars.
Ex-inmate: jail tax fraud is rampant [TBO]
There's not a prison in the state of Florida that doesn't have someone doing income tax" fraud, [an inmate] said.
U.K. Fraud Increases 50% to $3.25 Billion, Accounting Firm Says [Bloomberg]
Publicly reported fraud in the U.K. last year rose to 2.1 billion pounds ($3.25 billion), a 50 percent increase from 2010, accounting firm BDO LLP said. Tax crimes accounted for the highest percentage of the total value of fraud, with an average of 13 million pounds a case, BDO said in a statement. The firm also saw “a boom” in fraud in the retail sector, and a decrease in the value of cases in the financial and insurance industries.
KPMG partner profits fall 10pc on weak M&A and Government spending [Telegraph]
The big four firm saw UK profits drop 5pc in 2011 to £396m after what UK chairman, John Griffiths-Jones, called a “tricky year”. The pool of profits shared among the partners fell to £683,000 from £763,000. Total sales for KPMG’s UK practice rose 7pc to £1.7bn in the 12 months ending September 30, 2011, driven by dramatic growth in risk and tax consulting.
Woman coughed out a lung, new case study says [MSNBC]
Two days of chest pain drove a 40-year-old woman to Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham, United Kingdom, for relief. The woman had asthma, and had been coughing especially hard for two weeks. When examining her, doctors noticed some cracking, popping sounds coming from her right midaxillary line — or the right side of her torso. Further examination with the use of X-ray revealed that the woman had coughed so hard — she'd herniated her lung. Two days of chest pain drove a 40-year-old woman to Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham, United Kingdom, for relief. The woman had asthma, and had been coughing especially hard for two weeks. When examining her, doctors noticed some cracking, popping sounds coming from her right midaxillary line — or the right side of her torso. Further examination with the use of X-ray revealed that the woman had coughed so hard — she'd herniated her lung.
