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Accounting News Roundup: SEC Bans Black; A $2 Billion Tax Bill; Résumé Fraud | 08.16.13

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

India Seeks to Overhaul a Corporate World Rife With Fraud [DealBook]
In the wake of global scandals involving kickbacks and accounting fraud, one unlikely country, India, is aiming to set a tone in overhauling its corporate oversight laws. This month, the nation’s upper house of Parliament passed the Companies Bill, 2012, sweeping legislation meant to overhaul auditing, impose stiffer penalties for fraud and create more government oversight of businesses. The lower house had passed the bill last year. Once India’s president, Pranab Mukherjee, signs it into law, it will replace India’s 57-year-old corporate legislation that critics say had failed to keep up with changes in business practices.

SEC bars Conrad Black from U.S. directorships [Reuters]
The U.S. securities regulator on Thursday banned former press baron Conrad Black from acting as a director of a U.S. company and said he must pay $4.1 million in restitution in a settlement that ends a long-standing lawsuit over Black's dealings as the head of the Hollinger media empire. In its heyday, Hollinger International operated a raft of newspapers that included the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, Britain's Daily Telegraph and the National Post in Black's native Canada. Black, 68, gave up Canadian citizenship when he became a member of Britain's House of Lords. The final judgment by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission followed Black's appeal of an October 2012 SEC judgment that ordered him to pay $6.1 million. He was released from U.S. prison more than a year ago after serving a sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice.

IRS Hits Estate of Former Detroit Pistons Owner With $2 Billion Tax Bill [TaxProf]
The estate tax is a chief reason being rich is overrated.

Miccosukee Tribe sues IRS over back taxes owed on gambling distributions to members [MH]
On the hook for $170 million in income taxes and related bills, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians is suing rather than settling with the Internal Revenue Service over the tribe’s failure to report and withhold income from its gambling distributions to members. But what makes the federal lawsuit filed in Miami so distinctive is that the tribe has mounted the counteroffensive not only against its longtime nemesis, the IRS, but also against Attorney General Eric Holder and the secretaries of the Treasury and Interior departments.
 
How to Avoid Résumé Fraud [CFO]
Remember Scott Thompson? Yead, don't do that.
 
Samsung Said to Unveil Wristwatch-Like Smartphone Next Month [Bloomberg]
I'm sure this won't be annoying.
 
The Case Against Eating Lunch Outside [Slate]
The obvious flaw with eating outside is that the weather is often unpleasant. That's why people aren't suggesting that we eat outside all the time. Only on special "it's such a nice day!" kind of days do people want to go outside. But what's a nice day? Well, it's a day when the temperature outside approximates the results of indoor climate control technology.
Posted in ANR

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Barclays in Sanctions Bust [WSJ]
“Barclays PLC agreed to pay $298 million to settle charges by U.S. and New York prosecutors that the U.K. bank altered financial records for more than a decade to hide hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. from Cuba, Libya, Iran and other sanctioned countries.

Monday’s settlement agreement of criminal charges is an embarrassment for Barclays, which became a major player on Wall Street by snapping up the collapsed U.S. operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008 and has been trying to burnish the U.K. bank’s reputation on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as a good corporate citizen.”

Cashing in on cleantech [The Guardian]
“While E&Y claims to be the first to set up a practice specifically for cleantech, in recent years PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, KPMG and E&Y have all launched dedicated practices for sustainability and climate change.

Steven Lang, who leads the cleantech division in the UK and Ireland, recently explained the attraction to Business Green: ‘We’ve seen major amounts of capital flowing into clean energy and clean technology and governments increasingly want to use the sector as a driver for international competitiveness.

‘The drivers are there for this to be a major growth area over the next five years.’ “

GM IPO filing expected Tuesday [Reuters]
It’s like you never left, GM. “General Motors Co has completed the paperwork for an initial public offering, and timing of its filing with the U.S. securities regulators rests with the board of the top U.S. automaker, sources familiar with the process said on Monday.

The initial prospectus, expected to be for $100 million, is likely to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, two people said, asking not to be named because the preparations for the IPO are private.”


IASB details recruitment process for Tweedie replacement [Accountancy Age]
“In a newly created section of the IASB website, the body has outlined the process it has followed since September 2009, as it searches to replace chairman Sir David Tweedie, who steps down in June 2011.

Among the documents is a letter sent to the European Commissioner’s office on 3 December, 2009, from Sir Bryan Nicholson, who has led the IASB’s recruitment process.”

Woman due in court for pie attack on US Sen. Levin [CT]
“A woman accused of hitting U.S. Sen. Carl Levin in the face with an apple pie during the Armed Services Committee chairman’s constituent meeting in northern Michigan is due in court.

Twenty-two-year-old Ahlam M. Mohsen of Coldwater will be arraigned Tuesday. She is being held without bond after being arrested Monday on a felony charge of stalking, and misdemeanor counts of assault and disorderly conduct”

Apple?

Facebook Partnership Is Proven by $3,000 Check, Lawyer Says [Bloomberg]
“The western New York man suing over claims he owns 84 percent of Facebook Inc. has a copy of a $3,000 cashier’s check his lawyer says is proof of a contract with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.

The purported 2003 check is made out to Zuckerberg and dated three days before Paul Ceglia claims the two men signed a contract, according to the attorney. That agreement, Ceglia said in court papers, entitles him to control of the world’s biggest social networking website.”

Conference To Debate Future Of Fannie, Freddie [NPR]
Euthanasia seems like a good option here.