• 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.
