Author: Caleb Newquist

Founding editor, Going Concern.

‘Swashbuckling Industrialist’ Tom Petters Is Going to be Responsible for Putting Senior Citizens on the Street

petters_plane.jpgFor those of you that were maybe developing a soft spot for Tom Petters because, among other things, his own lawyer doesn’t think too much of him, the latest testimony in TP’s trial should help squash your sympathy.
Janet Leck, a 79 year old widow, was convinced by Frank Vennes, Jr. — an evangelist who “steered unwitting investors to [Petters]” — to invest her money with Tom Petters. At one point Vennes, apparently having reconnected with the Almighty, told Leck that he was ending his business relationship with TP because of ‘things he was seeing in Mr. Petters’ personal life’ and was returning her money.
Now, one could assume that Vennes was getting the creeps from Petters because either: 1) he realized that Petters was a complete man-child that couldn’t finish a copy of Go Dog Go! or 2) typical hooker/llelo chicanery.


Two years after dumping Petters for his sinful ways, Vennes decided redemption was in order (or, most likely, he just missed the hookers) because he went back to TP and got the Lecks to invest with him again:

She re-mortgaged her home and drew out $190,000 in equity to invest with Petters, she said. Leck said she relied on the $3,400 monthly payments from that loan for living expenses until September 2008, when authorities raided Petters’ home and business looking for evidence that he was running an alleged $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme.
Now, unless she can restructure her mortgage, Leck said, “I’m looking at foreclosure. …I will move from my home of 30 years.”

In other overwhelmingly convincing testimony, investment banker Michael Liss described Petters, “as a ‘swashbuckling industrialist’ who had an arsenal of ‘ridiculous’ excuses for not paying his debts on time.”
Ridiculous excuses like, “Do you treat your other swashbuckling industrialist clients this way?” or “I’m busy ripping off senior citizens. Do you mind?” OR “My ass is going to end up in dumpster any second, sorta busy.”
Petters trial: Retired widow fears losing her home [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]

Bennie Bankes Poll Results

We have a landslide on our hands. Not only are most people we talk to disturbed by the suited swine, the winning caption was a clear choice.
Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for ben bankes at the NYC marathon.jpg

Big 4 partners adopt truth in advertising and are wearing pig costumes to all recruiting events.

With over 55% of the vote. Now, just for the sake of argument, anyone could wear the costumes to the recruiting events, people, not just partners. Embrace the truthiness.
Thanks for voting!

Job of the Week: Cash Money

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for hire me2.jpgSomeone has to manage the ins, the outs, the what have you’s related to the cash position of every company. It’s kinda an important job. Maybe your next job. Get the details for a Treasury Analyst position, after the jump.


Title: Treasury Analyst
Location: Chicago
Experience: 3 – 5 years
Responsibilities: Manage daily data collection process; Primary input of receipt and payment data in treasury system; Assist in timely payment of international and domestic wires; Report foreign currencies balances daily to help maintain proper liquidity; Support review of carry broker statements for margin excess/deficit funding needs; Maintain log of non-receipt of wires; Assist with investigation & documentation of all wire differences; Maintain overdraft listing for processing by Cash Manager; Review previous day’s balances and investigate missing items.
Skills: Treasury experience 1-5 years; Fast and accurate data entry skills; Cash management, payment systems experience; International and domestic payments procedures and requirements; Customer Accounting, Banking, Exchange, General Ledger Systems; Generally accepted accounting principles and financial reporting requirements.
Check out the entire description over at the GC Career Center and check out the main page for all your pavement pounding needs.

Layoff Watch ’09: Grant Thornton

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Grant-thornton-logo.JPGThere’s a lot of chatter about layoffs at Grant Thornton this week but we’re scant on details. So far, we’ve heard there were cuts in New York, Dallas and possibly the Southeast region.
And just for the hell of it, we called up GT to see if they could tell us anything. Unfortunately we just got voicemail but we’ll update you if they get back to us (they might, don’t be so pessimistic).
If you have more details, get in touch and ask around to your peoples that work in the House of Nusbaum to find out what’s going down.

Caption Contest Friday: Is Your Career in the Crapper?

A reader working at a client site showed us where she and the rest of her audit team will be sitting for the next three weeks:
crapper.jpg
A little background/TMI: Naturally our first question was, “Is anything audible?” to which she replied, “We definitely know who has a weak stream around here.”
Same rules – Submit possible captions for all the photos in the comments. We’ll choose our favorites — with preference given to those with an accounting/auditing bent — and then let you vote for the best one. Impress us.

GC November Survey: Last Call

beer.jpgThis will be our final request for you to participate in our completely harmless, yet immensely helpful, one question survey.
Thanks to everyone that has already taken the survey. If you haven’t taken the survey, are you aware that for ten seconds of your time, you can win a $50 AMEX gift card? Do the math, it’s worth it.
We suggested that we should hand out gift cards to everyone but we don’t call the shots around here.
Have a great Friday and thanks for participating!

Preliminary Analytics | 11.13.09

hong-kong.jpg• After Switzerland, U.S. Said to Aim at Hong Kong – You offshore money will be found. [DealBook]
• The Dilbert Guide to Angry Investing – [Idea of the Day/NYT]
• Alleged Ponzi Scheme Likely To Top $1 Billion, FBI Says – In the Ponzi du jour, Scott Rubenstein is accused of selling bogus legal settlements to investors. [WSJ]
• Roomy Khan Tipped Several People In Galleon Case – Diabolical. [Reuters via NYT]

Review Comments | 11.12.09

Thumbnail image for crocs533.jpg• Porsche confirms big annual loss – So you file a stupid lawsuit against Crocs? They don’t have any money, you dolts. [BBC]
• More on The Tax Treatment of the Sale of Human Body Parts – There’s a market people. [TaxProf Blog]
• Balloon Boy Parents to Plead Guilty – “Our long, national, helium induced nightmare is almost over.” [ATL]
• The Goldman Sachs Foundation’s torrid 2008 – Team Jehovah’s foundation lost a lot scratch doing their share of the Almighty’s work. [Felix Salmon/Reuters]
• Economists See Fed Raising Rates Near Midterm Elections – Annnnd unemployment will still be near double digits. Enjoy, incumbents. [WSJ]

Even as the Doors Were Being Busted Down, Tom Petters Was Sure Everything Would Be Fine

PettersSmile.jpgThe trial of Cocker Spaniel/Ponzi boy Tom Petters is moving along as more and more witnesses are giving testimony that pretty much solidifies Petters’ statement that his business was “one big fucking fraud”.
Testimony on Tuesday (there were no proceedings yesterday due to the holiday) included that of James Wehmhoff, an accountant for Petters Company Inc. (“PCI”).
Wehmhoff said that Petters and Robert White — Petters’ CFO — were taking money out of a subsidiary for personal use. In addition, he also testified that Petters was panicking about an audit and was desperate to stonewall them:

In an email Petters sent to Wehmhoff and other insiders, Petters allegedly wrote, “We need to send the auditors something every day no matter what and keep them from coming to Minnesota. We must pacify them.”

Yet when the Feds were raiding his businesses last September Petters thought everything was hunky-dory, allegedly telling one investor, ‘everything would be fine’. This despite Petters’ fear of getting clipped and, you know, having to explain just where the hell $3.5 billion went.
We’ll keep you updated until they find this guy guilty.
Accountant Testifies Petters Panicked Over Audit [KSTP]
Accountant: Petters execs misused investor cash [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]
Earlier: Ernst & Young and McGladrey & Pullen Both Have a Petters Problem

Fraud Examiners Can’t See the Silver Lining

fraud.jpgThe Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (“ACFE”) is bellyaching about the Garret-Adler amendment.
This is the measure that was passed by the House Financial Services Committee that would exempt small issuers (market cap less than $75 mil) from complying with section 404 of Sarbanes Oxley.
ACFE President, James Ratley:

“At a time when the economic downturn has heightened the risk of fraud for organizations large and small, it simply does not make sense to weaken accounting rules that are in place to protect investors,” he said in a statement. “The bottom line is that internal controls are one of the best fraud prevention tools for any organization to have in place. Providing exemptions for some public companies from the SOX 404 requirements only leads to an increased risk of fraud.”

Ratley very well may be right but let’s not forget who we’re talking about. Nobody — especially accountants — is going to stop the train wreck that is the U.S. Congress. Accordingly, the ACFE should embrace this as a golden opportunity to boost their membership and shout from the rooftops about the benefits of having a CFE certification.
Nobody seems to understand that it isn’t auditors’ job to detect fraud and most companies only seem interested in detective controls, so what’s the point?
Get on this ACFE. It’s fraud awareness week after all. We shouldn’t have to explain this to you.
ACFE Warns Not to Change SOX Rules [Web CPA]

The Knighted One Keeps His Promises

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for tweedie.jpgSir David Tweedie and his fellow non-knighted wonks have released IFRS 9, Financial Instruments today to much anticipation. For those companies that were chomping at the bit, you can adopt pronto but nothing is mandatory until the end of 2012.
You got to hand it to Tweeds. The BSD at the G20 demanded that the IASB take another look (read: change) at this fair value thing ASAP and he delivered, AS PROMISED:

We have delivered on our commitment to the G20 and stakeholders internationally to provide an improved financial instrument standard for the classification and measurement of financial assets for use in 2009. Benefiting from unprecedented levels of consultation with stakeholders around the world, the IASB has made significant changes in its initial proposals to improve the standard, provide enhanced transparency and respond to stakeholder concerns.

Very impressive, so the ball is your court, Norwalk. You better get off your asses and come up with something good because none of you have knighthood and we haven’t seen much evidence of your re-quadrupled efforts. We already know that you’re talking Plan B but give us something, anything. You’re worried about Congress, sure but the Europeans are making you look bad. Is there any American knight-ish equivalent that Bob Herz could get that would help give him a boost in confidence?
If you’ve got suggestions, leave them in the comments. We’re at a total loss.
IASB completes first phase of financial instruments accounting reform [IASB Press Release]
New fair value standard rushed out by IASB [Accountancy Age]