Author: Caleb Newquist

The Shadow of Enron Still Lingers [WSJ]
The beginning of the end for Enron Corp. came exactly a decade ago. Yet the energy giant’s colossal collapse casts a long shadow over the government’s efforts to punish wrongdoing during the financial crisis. In October 2001, the highflying Houston company jolted investors with a big loss. Less than two months later, Enron was bankrupt, and the scandal led to 42 civil enforcement actions by securities regulators and criminal charges against 33 people and the company’s auditor, according to a tally by law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. More than a dozen peoFormer Enron President Jeffrey Skilling, now 57 years old, is serving a 24-year sentence in a Colorado federal prison following his 2006 fraud conviction. Some people who helped untangle the Enron mess say the results show how regulators and prosecutors are coming up short as they work on cases tied to the financial crisis. So far, no high-profile executive has been sent to prison for crisis-related wrongdoing.

Lessons From Auditor’s Fall [WSJ]
Joseph F. Berardino says he “turned the page” on an accounting career that lasted more than 30 years. “Fate has given me an opportunity to do something different.” Mr. Berardino was chief executive of Andersen Worldwide, the parent company of Arthur Andersen, when the accounting firm was hit with a criminal charge in March 2002. He soon resigned, watching from the outside as a jury convicted Arthur Andersen of obstructing justice by shredding documents relating to its botched audit of Enron. The conviction meant Arthur Andersen was banned from auditing public companies. It was a death sentence. By the time the Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2005, the 89-year-old firm was essentially out of business. At its peak, the firm employed 28,000 people around the world. “It’s left us with just four big accountancy firms, and I don’t know anyone these days who thinks that’s a good outcome,” Mr. Berardino says now.

Cain defends ‘9-9-9’ tax overhaul plan [WaPo]
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain acknowledged Sunday that some Americans would see a tax increase under his “9-9-9” plan, but he insisted that “most people will pay less” under his proposal to overhaul the country’s tax code.

Zynga’s Profits Get Zyngier [GOA]
The Grumpies take on Farmville: “Zynga, Inc. filed another amendment to its registration statement. The fourth-amended S-1 for Zynga involves a change in the revenue recognition, which fortuitously turns a semi-annual loss into a semi-annual profit. Ain’t accounting great!”

Accounting Gain Boosts Citigroup Profit [WSJ]
Citigroup booked a $1.9 billion gain tied to a change in the valuation of its own debt, and continued improvement in losses from soured loans allowed the bank to reduce its loan-loss reserve by $1.4 billion. Even without the accounting gain, Citigroup’s $3.74 billion profit exceeded analysts’ expectations.

How California Was Diminished by 1978 Tax Revolt [Bloomberg]
California voters approved Proposition 13 to rein in property taxes that had doubled in 10 years. More than three decades later, that rebellion has mortgaged the state’s future, saddling it with the nation’s highest debt and lowest credit rating. The measure led to reductions that dropped per-student school spending from seventh to 29th nationally, prompted cities to pursue sprawling retail development to compensate for lost revenue, and pushed the state into budget gridlock, including a $705 million revenue shortfall announced Oct. 10, by requiring two-thirds approval for any tax increase. “Proposition 13 set up an unfair and dysfunctional two- tiered system of property taxes,” said Kevin Starr, a history professor at the University of Southern California and the author of a series of books on the state. “It choked off a source of revenue, and the lack of that revenue has brought California to the edge.”

Olympus Adviser Payments Should Be Probed, PWC Report Says [BBW]
Olympus Corp. may face regulatory and legal scrutiny because of payments made to advisers in a 2008 transaction, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by ousted president Michael C. Woodford. Potential offenses include false accounting, financial assistance and breaches of duties by the board, according to an Oct. 11 report that Woodford provided to Bloomberg News. Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa said at an Oct. 14 press conference that the board fired Woodford, a 30-year veteran of the Japanese company, because he “wouldn’t listen” to warnings from Kikukawa. The British executive, who is now back in the U.K., said he was fired after he challenged the transactions.

‘Capitalists of the World Unite!’ [WSJ]
You don’t have to be camped out with the protesters to be angry at Wall Street. Contrary to what you may hear, actual capitalists—those providing capital—get a raw deal down on the Street of Shame.

How the Taxpayer Protection Pledge helps push tax reform [WaPo]
Red rover, red rover, send Grover right over: “The 238 members of the House of Representatives and the 41 senators who have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to their constituents stand ready to vote for pro-growth, revenue-neutral tax reform that simplifies the tax code and brings rates down for all citizens and businesses. The pledge is a barrier to tax increases. And that protection makes real tax reform possible today, just as it did in 1986.”

Cain Plan’s Reagan-Era Roots [WSJ]
Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan might have been called the “Optimal Tax.” The Republican presidential candidate’s economic adviser, Rich Lowrie, thought the plan’s broad sweep and ultra-low 9% rates made it an ideal tool to revamp the tax code and encourage growth. Mr. Cain liked the idea, but not the name Mr Lowrie came up with. “We can’t call it that,” Mr. Cain said during a cab ride through Nashville in July, according to Mr. Lowrie. Instead, the former pizza-chain executive, tapping his instinct for marketing, concluded: “We’re just going to call it what it is: 9-9-9.” (“What kind of nerd am I?” Mr. Lowrie says now.)

Can Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves? [NYT]
Can tax cuts “pay for themselves,” inducing so much additional economic growth that government revenue actually increases, rather than decreases? The evidence clearly says no. Nevertheless, a version of this idea, under the guise of “dynamic scoring,” has apparently surfaced in the supercommittee charged with deficit reduction — the joint Congressional committee with 12 members. Dynamic scoring sounds technical or perhaps even scientific, but here the argument means simply that any pro-growth effect of tax cuts should be stressed when assessing potential policy changes (e.g., reforming the tax code). For anyone seriously concerned with fiscal responsibility, this is a dangerous notion.

Bethenny Frankel’s $120 Million Skinnygirl Lie That Wasn’t [Fraud Files]
Tracy Coenen debunks a HuffPo wannabe debunker.

TIGTA: 10,300 Businesses (Not Projected 25,000) Paid 10% ObamaCare Tanning Tax [TaxProf]
New Jersey, rejoice!

Tax Holiday Backers Emphasize Big Picture [Bloomberg]
Faced with criticism that companies didn’t use proceeds of a 2004 tax holiday to create jobs directly, advocates for repeating the policy are emphasizing the indirect economic effects of repatriating more than $1 trillion. Whether the money is used for hiring or stock buybacks, “I would much rather have their foreign earnings here rather than in, say, France,” said Kenneth Kies, a tax lobbyist at the Federal Policy Group in Washington whose clients include Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Pfizer Inc. Those companies, along with Apple Inc., Google Inc., and Qualcomm Inc., are part of a coalition urging Congress to temporarily reduce the tax rate on profits held overseas. They want a repeat of a 2004 law that let companies pay 5.25 percent, instead of 35 percent, when they bring that cash to the U.S.

PwC has earned £400m from Lehman Brothers so far [Telegraph]
In total, the accountancy firm has billed Lehman Brothers International (Europe) £403m and still has about 250 staff working on the complex resolution of the bank. This fee does not take into account the cost of continuing to pay 495 former Lehman Brothers staff as well as contractors who are helping with the winding up work. In the six months to the end of June alone the payroll bill came to £33m. Completing the work is expected to take at least 10 years, though the costs are expected to fall as the main parts of the administration are completed and the number of staff required to work on the project falls. An application will be made to the UK High Court next month to extend the administration period for a further five years.

ICAEW: Pass/fail audit report is best [Accountancy Age]
Auditors’ Reporting model should not be extended to disclose company information that is not already in the public domain, the ICAEW has argued. US regulator the PCAOB has proposed extending the audit report template to offer investors more detail on risks and business models, but the ICAEW has warned if management has not disclosed the information, the auditor should not do so.