Stanford Hit With 110 Years [WSJ]
As he prepared to be sentenced, a shackled Mr. Stanford shuffled to the witness stand and told U.S. District Court Judge David Hittner, "I'm not a thief." In a rambling statement that lasted more than half an hour, Mr. Stanford said that his Stanford International Group was a legitimate business that was ruined when the government froze his assets. "I didn't run a Ponzi scheme, I didn't defraud anybody, and there was never any intent to defraud anybody," said Mr. Stanford, wearing a green prison jumpsuit.
FATCA: The IRS’s Very Big Stick [PEB/WSJ]
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is brandishing a “very big stick,” and it’s called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. That was the opinion of panelists during a Dow Jones webinar earlier today on FATCA, the slowly unfolding law that the U.S. government expects will uncover U.S. investors who are evading taxes by putting their money in foreign funds and institutions. But the government isn’t looking to hit foreign funds and institutions to bring in tax revenue. “[The IRS] would say, ‘We would be thrilled if we didn’t collect a dime under FATCA,” Laurie Hatten-Boyd, a principal at KPMG, said. “They view this as an information gathering regime, not a withholding regime.”
Rich people like free stuff – just like us!
New ICAEW president: Watchdog shouldn't talk down auditors [Accountancy Age]
The new ICAEW president has issued forthright criticism of the accounting watchdog's public stance on the audit profession. Mark Spofforth, also senior partner of Sussex firm Spofforths, said in his inaugural speech that he was "disappointed and dismayed" that the FRC's Audit Inspection Unit's annual review of auditors' work was presented in a critical manner. "The role of the regulator is to encourage confidence; this is not achieved by talking down the work of audit firms – particularly when the latest Audit Inspection Unit shows clear signs of improvement on 2010, and when no systematic flaws in the audit profession or firms reviewed were identified," said Spofforth.
You're off the hook, PwC! No, just kidding.