Florida Jury Deliberates Deloitte Auditing Case [WSJ]
The Florida Department of Financial Services is seeking $850 million in damages. "The case stems from Deloitte’s audits for three insurance companies under the banner of the Poe Financial Group, which had more than 300,000 property-insurance policies in force when a wave of hurricanes hit Florida beginning in 2004. The regulator contends Deloitte wrongly gave the companies a clean bill of health when in reality the claims from the first part of that wave of hurricanes had left them insolvent—something the department says Deloitte should have known and reported to regulators."
How PwC plans to leverage political contributions to help female politicians [Fortune]
Laura Cox Kaplan, PwC's regulatory affairs and public policy leader, says the firm will help support female politicians through their political action committee: "In 2014, PwC’s PAC gave a total of $1.5 million to political candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a D.C. group that tracks political donations. While that figure pales in comparison to Washington’s biggest donors, Kaplan is hoping that, by focusing more of that money on female politicians, it can start to improve the gender balance in Congress."
SEC Chief Accountant Backs Away from IFRS Proposal [AT]
James Schnurr is having second thoughts on optional IFRS reporting, "as a supplement to U.S. GAAP without requiring reconciliation."
From the PCAOB's Audit Committee Dialogue
4 recurring areas of concern: ICFR, risk of material misstatement, estimates and fair value, and referred work http://t.co/N1PD78qDLn
— PCAOB_News (@PCAOB_News) May 8, 2015
Toshiba Withdraws Forecasts, Cancels Dividend on Accounting Probe [Bloomberg]
This "embarrassment" could be quite interesting: " 'Several construction projects have understated costs,' said Aya Oshima, a spokeswoman for Toshiba. 'The investigation so far included power systems, social infrastructure and community solutions units.' "
Mobetize Corp. Appoints Grant Thornton LLP as Auditors [GT/Mobetize]
The best part is the quote from the CFO who is "pleased to be working with […] one of the Big 6 accounting firms."
Florida man tries to cash check for $368 billion [ST]
He also had bath salts and Chinese throwing stars in his possession.
