When accounting goes unaccounted for
No doubt Benny Bankes will continue his endeavor to convince everyone in America to start saving money rather than blowing it on Naughtibods. In the meantime, vote on your favorite caption after the jump. The poll closes at 11:59 EST tomorrow night.
Huron Consulting, who cleaned house late on Friday and is restating three years of financial statements, is likely going to be named in a class-action lawsuit, according to Reuters.
Huron, who need we remind you, is not a CPA firm and does not perform attestation services, what with all those pesky independence rules and whatnot, has seen its stock price drop from just over $44 last week to hovering around $15.
More, after the jump
Huron was founded by two dozen Andersen partners, according to the report, including the resigning CEO, Gary Holdren. So, natch, these guys were probably viewed as having not so sterling reputations, and now, well, this is a little awkward.
It’s more than likely pretty much a certainty that this particular accounting mishap will bring more heat on auditors, in this case, P. Dubya, as management seems to be able to manipulate their reporting, regardless of what the auditors try to do.
We reached out to PwC on this story, who would not comment on client matters. We thinks this might become a PwC matter before long…If you’ve got any information on this story shoot it our way at tips@goingconcern.com.
In Huron scandal, shadows of Arthur Andersen [Reuters]
LinkedIn Swings to Loss on Expenses LinkedIn Corp. swung to a first-quarter loss on higher […]
We haven’t seen outrage like this since FASB bent over and rewrote mark to market!
Denver is now considering taking a cue from a Chicago plan that basically pimped out the city’s parking meters for a lump-sum lease payment instead of relying on a constant stream of unknown revenue in quarters. Genius… sort of.
More, after the jump
Councilman Doug Linkhart would like to solve the city’s $120 million budget shortfall with quarters. But instead of fixing the deficit one quarter at a time — about $9 million in revenue from parking meters per year — the councilman would like to sell the city’s parking meter revenue stream to a private firm for one lump sum — as much as $430 million — and then use some of the money to close the budget gap. “It’s got some potential,” Linkhart told the Denver Daily News on Friday. “It sounds like a good idea … by no means is it perfect, and by no means is it exactly what I would do … but the concept is certainly worth looking into.”
That’s all well and good and on the surface it appears as though this plan cannot possibly go wrong, right? I hope Denver is watching how this unravels before jumping prematurely on the parking meter pawn shop bandwagon.
Hmm:
Clint Krislov, a Chicago attorney for a group of taxpayers, said on Thursday that a Cook County Circuit Court judge on August 28 will hear their petition to allow the lawsuit challenging the deal to proceed. “The contract is illegal so we’re asking (the court) to block spending tax dollars on it,” Krislov said. “After the transaction closed, the city continued to expend public funds to maintain and repair CPM’s privately controlled meters based on complaints that a number of CPM’s parking meters were disabled, would not take coins, did not properly recognize the coins placed in the meters, and displayed inaccurate parking rates and times of enforcement,” the lawsuit stated.
Chicago taxpayers have a point. You cannot use city streets as a private pawn shop and then apply taxpayer money to pay interest on your pawned items. Perhaps someone can point to the FASB that says as much?