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Accounting News Roundup: Sanctions for Former Deloitte Brazil Execs and #Envelopegate: The Aftermath | 03.30.17

deloitte cyberattack

Deloitte Brazil

Back in December, Deloitte’s Brazil affiliate paid a record $8 million fine and settled charges with the PCAOB over some bad audits and the cover-up of those bad audits. Yesterday, the PCAOB announced sanctions for two former Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Auditores Independentes (aka Deloitte Brazil) executives who wouldn’t cooperate with the Board’s investigation:

[T]he PCAOB found that Michael John Morrell, the former Chairman of Deloitte’s governing body in Brazil, contributed to the firm’s failure to cooperate with a PCAOB investigation. Also, Juarez Lopes de Araújo, Deloitte Brazil’s former CEO and managing partner, refused to cooperate with the investigation.

The prior settlement included the firm’s audit leader, its risk and reputation leader as well as national professional practice director, but this order makes clear that this thing went all the way to the top. Deloitte told the Wall Street Journal that Messrs. Morrell or de Araújo were “immediately separated” from the firm when the situation came to light. Both men agreed to bars and fines but didn’t admit any wrongdoing.

Lobbying

Here’s an age old story of a person with a good idea for fixing our tax filing system who ends up thwarted by Intuit, the maker of TurboTax. Stanford Professor Joe Bankman even hired a lobbyist for $35,000 with his own money to get his idea, ReadyReturn, passed in the California legislature. And it worked pretty well, hiring a lobbyist:

The investment paid off. Joe started getting meetings. And he was getting close to having the votes he needed to pass ReadyReturn. Closer and closer, finally tied. And then with just a couple of weeks before the vote, it happened – one last politician said yes. And it looked like ReadyReturn was going to happen in California. The day of the vote, a politician friend promised to call Joe with updates. At about 10 a.m., his phone rang.

You know what happens next. ReadyReturn doesn’t pass. Intuit wins. Taxpayers lose. Like I said, it’s an age old story.

#Envelopegate

Now that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has decided to keep PwC as its tabulator, we get to rehash the whole blunderful night all over again.

Just kidding, there’s really nothing else to talk about other than this wonderful Matt Damon story:

“I met that guy [Brian Cullinan] and commented on it, [saying] ‘We look very similar,’” Damon said. “I said, ‘If you do something incredible, maybe I’ll play you in a movie.’ But I didn’t mean that.”

Previously, on Going Concern…

#Envelopegate: The Aftermath strikes me as a good name for this act in the PwC/Oscars saga. Also, Greg Kyte’s Exposure Drafts cartoon touched on collecting professional certifications. In Open Items, someone weighs their options for getting the additional hours to qualify for the CPA.

In other news:

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