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Accounting News Roundup: Satyam Auditor Gets Bail; SEC Drops Civil Charges Against Broadcom Execs; PCAOB Launches Redesigned Website | 02.05.10

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

• PwC auditor Srinivas gets bail in Satyam case [The Economic Times]
According the Economic Times, the Supreme Court in India “said since the case was based on documents, all of which has already been seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it would be of no use to keep the accused in jail, where he had been lodged since his arrest in January 24 last year.” They also report that the “chargesheet [runs] over 55,000 pages” which seems like a good enough reason to just forget this whole thing.

Seriously, they were just able to come to the conclusion that he didn’t need to be in jail because the documents were TLDR? What army of accountants is on this thing? Will this never end?


• Ex-Broadcom Officials off SEC Hook [WSJ]
Despite all the horn tooting the SEC has been doing, they still manage to mess things up pretty regularly. After criminal charges were dropped against Broadcom executives due to “evidence in the criminal case showed prosecutors tried to influence the testimony of three key witnesses, improperly contacted witnesses’ attorneys and leaked information about grand jury proceedings to the media,” the civil charges have been subsequently dropped.

The Broadcom case if you recall, involved a back-dating scandal but far more interesting were the allegations that Broadcom co-founder William Nicolas III was “conspiring to distribute illegal drugs, including methamphetamine and cocaine,” and providing prosties to clients in underground quarters built specifically for said purposes.

But now Nicolas is sober and it’s all been thrown out and the SEC once again looks like idiots. Sobriety and an incompetent SEC makes for a feel good story.

• PCAOB Launches a Redesigned Web Site [PCAOB Press Release]
It was official yesterday although the new look seems to have been up all week. Acting Chair Dan Goelzer managed to wake from his nap to throw in his boilerplate statement, although by the looks of the guy, were not sure he knows how to use email let alone give an opinion on the website: “The redesigned Web site enhances the PCAOB’s transparency efforts by making registration, inspection, standard setting and enforcement information more accessible and user-friendly to the investors, auditors and other interested parties who use our site.”

In other news, it appears that despite the decent salary no one wants to be the non-acting Chairman. Not that it’s an important position or anything.

Posted in ANR

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~ Colin, here: I’ve got some professional obligations to attend to today that will, unfortunately, keep me tied up so posting will be on the light side. Despite my absence, keep us apprised of any holiday spirit shenanigans going on out there and I’ll do my best to turn them around pronto.

Democrats Say They Will Try Again on Payroll Tax [NYT]
Senate Democrats said Monday that they would try for the fifth time in two months to raise taxes on top earners to pay for legislation that would reduce Social Security payroll taxes, as President Obama sought l Republicans on the defensive, asserting that their intransigence could cause a tax increase for tens of millions of American workers.

Olympus Faces Tokyo Delisting After Management Hid $1.7 Billion of Losses [Bloomberg]
Olympus Corp. risks being delisted even if it makes a Dec. 14 deadline to announce earnings, the Tokyo Stock Exchange said after the release of an independent report into false accounting by the Japanese camera maker. Senior management was “rotten to the core” and corrupted other layers of executives that touched it, according to the report of a panel probing Olympus’s schemes to cover up 135 billion yen ($1.7 billion) in losses and payments to advisers dating back decades. Failings by auditors and aid from banks in Europe and Singapore helped hide the losses, it said.

Corzine Rebuffed Internal Warnings on Risks [WSJ]
MF Global Holdings Ltd.’s executive in charge of controlling risks raised serious concerns several times last year to directors at the securities firm about the growing bet on European bonds by his boss, Jon S. Corzine, people familiar with the matter said. The board allowed the company’s exposure to troubled European sovereign debt to swell from about $1.5 billion in late 2010 to $6.3 billion shortly before MF Global tumbled into bankruptcy Oct. 31, these people said. The executive who challenged Mr. Corzine resigned in March.

Esprit Drops as CFO Departs Amid Revival Drive [Bloomberg]
Esprit Holdings Ltd. (330), the clothing retailer struggling to recover from a 98 percent profit slump, fell the most in more than two months in Hong Kong trading after Chief Financial Officer Chew Fook Aun quit. The biggest clothing retailer listed in Hong Kong fell 11 percent to HK$10.72 and the close of trading in the city, its biggest drop since Sept. 21. The stock is down 71 percent this year compared with an 18 percent drop for the benchmark Hang Seng Index. Chew’s resignation for personal reasons will take effect by June 1 as he is “unable to spend the required time in Europe,” the Hong Kong-based casual clothing chain said in a statement yesterday. Esprit, which on Sept. 15 said its brand had “lost its soul,” faces declining sales on the continent, where it made 79 percent of revenue.

Woman gets 18 months for claiming 20 nonexistent children to IRS [LAT]
A former Los Angeles resident drew an 18-month federal prison sentence Monday for filing fraudulent income tax returns involving 20 nonexistent children, all with the same birthday. Norma Coronel, 40, an illegal immigrant who now lives in Livermore, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real to pay $302,186 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. In a plea agreement, Coronel admitted that she applied for and obtained Social Security numbers for at least 20 fictitious children in 2002. She claimed all the children had been born at a Los Angeles hospital on Dec. 11, 2002.

Audit Reform in the European Union — Michel Barnier Delivers A Holiday Turkey [Re:Balance]
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The Cartoon that Killed Arthur Andersen [The Summa]
You’re a bad auditor, Charlie Brown.

I’m in a JIT: the Ernst & Young “I’m on a boat” parody video, explained [ACS]
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The machines are scary.

Supermodel Christie Brinkley super sorry [Tax Watchdog]
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National survey finds employee wages and bonuses to remain stagnant over next six months [GT Press Release]
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PwC’s Administration of Lehman Translates to $24,000 Per Hour! [The Big Four Blog]
Naturally in most situations, there are winners and there are losers. While Ernst & Young is looking like a giant loser in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the whole thing seems to have worked out well for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

TBFB reports that, as the administrator for the UK piece of Lehman, the firm has gained control of over $48 billion in assets. Costs associated with these services (in the 18 months since the bankruptcy) are 0.65% of the assets recovered. A quick punch of your 10-key reveals that this is around $312 million or $24,000/hour.

Accounting News Roundup: CEO Pay > Taxes Paid; Auditors Now Under Heat for Greek Debt; Ripping off the Old People | 08.31.11

Some companies pay their CEOs more than Uncle Sam, study says [WaPo]
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