Category: ANR

Jobs Quits as Apple CEO [WSJ]
Apple said Mr. Jobs submitted his resignation to the board of directors on Wednesday and “strongly recommended” that the board name Mr. Cook as his successor. Mr. Job been elected chairman of the board and Mr. Cook will join the board, effective immediately, the company said. “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Mr. Jobs said in his resignation letter. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

Management Faces Task of Keeping Momentum [WSJ]
The executives who will now run Apple without Mr. Jobs will face big tests of whether they can still excel in highly competitive businesses that often have small profit margins. “Can they hit the next home run?” asks Charles O’Reilly, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. “Because if they don’t, they’re in a bunch of bad businesses.”

Grant Thornton CEO on Mandatory Audit Rotation [CFOJ]
Nusbaum: “There’s a natural inclination among accounting firms for anything like mandatory firm rotation to raise the hair on the back of our necks and make us very nervous, because we don’t want to give up clients. We have a lot of clients and of course we always think we’re doing a great job with them. But I think we as a profession have to be open minded and look at all the ways we can improve audit quality. But it’s a difficult decision. The PCAOB is in the unique position to see how all the firms operate, to see how we do audits, what we do well and what we do poorly and how we can improve.”

Trust No One, Particularly Not Groupon’s Accountants [Grumpy Old Accountants]
The grumpies start really digging into Groupon.

Warning to budget mavens: ‘Tax expenditures’ may yield less than expected [WaPo]
Don’t forget, there are 180 tax expenditures in this tax code, which are really tax earmarks, which are really spending by any other name, and you get rid of those and start picking them off, and you can save billions and billions of bucks.

Buffett’s $7 Million Sacrifice Is Only a Start [Jonathan Weil/Bloomberg]
Whenever the leadership class feels nervous, you can count on some of them to offer the less-moneyed masses a bone to demonstrate they care. Warren Buffett says his idea of “shared sacrifice” is higher taxes on the super-rich. Only for him, this wouldn’t cost much.

Americans renounce citizenship over taxes [WFP]
Ohio-born Julie Veilleux spent the first eight years of her life in the United States but has lived in Canada for nearly 40 years. She became a Canadian citizen in 1995 and was told by the citizenship judge she was no longer an American. But Veilleux is among thousands of Canadians who could get caught up in a U.S. tax dragnet called the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative, or OVDI. It’s an amnesty program that promises reduced fines and penalties for Americans living abroad who catch up on unfiled tax returns. But it still threatens penalties of $10,000 or more for every bank account, RRSP or other savings account not declared from 2003 to 2010.

A Value-Added Tax Fuels Big Government [WSJ]
President Obama is now talking about a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction that includes a “revenue component” achieved by “tax reform.” Among the tax reforms getting attention is a value-added tax, or VAT. Similar to a sales tax […], the value-added tax has become a significant part of the revenue systems of Europe and also has been adopted by over 100 other nations. The VAT is believed to be a magical device that can stuff government coffers with money without untoward economic political consequences. It is no such thing.

The GOP will raise taxes — on the middle class and working poor [WaPo]
America’s presumably anti-tax party wants to raise your taxes. Come January, the Republicans plan to raise the taxes of anyone who earns $50,000 a year by $1,000, and anyone who makes $100,000 by $2,000. Their tax hike doesn’t apply to income from investments. It doesn’t apply to any wage income in excess of $106,800 a year. It’s the payroll tax that they want to raise — to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent of your paycheck, a level established for one year in December’s budget deal at Democrats’ insistence. Unlike the capital gains tax, or the low tax rates for the rich included in the Bush tax cuts, or the carried interest tax for hedge fund operators (which is just 15 percent), the payroll tax chiefly hits the middle class and the working poor.

Biden Says He Didn’t Go to China ‘to Explain a Damn Thing’ About Economy [Bloomberg]
Some media had suggested the purpose of his trip to China was to “explain our economic situation,” Biden told U.S. troops at Yokota airbase in Japan today. “I didn’t come to explain a damn thing.”

Amtrak taps KPMG for fast-rail plan [BG]
Amtrak, the taxpayer-supported passenger railroad, has hired KPMG LLP to assist in developing a business and financial plan to have 220-miles-per-hour service between Washington and Boston by 2040. KPMG will lead a team of consultants that will help identify funding sources and maximize private investment, Amtrak said.

Iowa Priorities [Tax Update]
JK: “When Iowa really cares, it can move quickly.”

PwC US Appoints Dean Simone U.S. Risk Assurance Practice Leader [PwC]
Dean-o had been running both the Industrial Products and Risk Assurance prior to announcement.

America is GE’s tax haven [Reuters]
GE’s disclosures show that over the last decade it paid much lower tax rates in America than offshore, just the opposite of the Washington political mantra. Even more puzzling, the U.S. corporate giant chooses to take more of its profits in other lands despite the higher tax rates there. Given that GE […] has a roughly 1,000-person tax department dedicated to paying as little as possible in taxes, what the disclosures show is that something other than tax policy is driving GE’s business decisions.

H&R Block selling RSM for $610 million [MW]
H&R Block Inc. said on Tuesday that it is selling its RSM McGladrey unit to McGladrey & Pullen, LLP for $610 million. The firm said the deal will result in a $53 million, or 17 cents a share, after tax charge to s expected to close by the end of the year.

Tax Break for Clergy Questioned [WSJ]
As Congress scrutinizes every nook and cranny of the budget for possible revenue, a surprising court decision is allowing clergy members to buy or live in multiple homes tax-free. The U.S. Tax Court ruled that Phil Driscoll, an ordained minister and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter who went to prison for tax evasion, didn’t owe federal income taxes on $408,638 provided to him by his ministry to buy a second home on a lake near Cleveland, Tenn. Under a provision of the tax code known as the parsonage allowance, first passed in 1921, an ordained clergy member may live tax-free in a home owned by his or her religious organization or receive a tax-free annual payment to buy or rent a home if the congregation approves.

Obama Talks to Buffett About Economy [Bloomberg]
“The president and Mr. Buffett discussed the overall outlook on the economy and the reaction to the headwinds we’ve experienced over the last couple of months,” said Josh Earnest, an administration spokesman. “They talked a little bit about some possible measures that would spur investment and increase economic growth and they also talked about some measures that could address the long-term fiscal situation in this country.”

Mandatory Auditor Rotation: If PCAOB Sanctions Were “Case-By-Case” [Re:Balance]
JP: ” [I]f the PCAOB can sustain its proof that long audit tenure was causally related to its definition of “audit failure,” it could include rotation in its toolkit of post-inspection sanctions.”

Hate Your Job? It May Run In the Family [WSJ]
Sayeth a new study.

Sharma to step down as S&P president [FT]
Deven Sharma is stepping down as president of Standard & Poor’s only weeks after the rating agency issued an unprecedented downgrade of the credit of the US, the company said. Mr Sharma will remain as an adviser to S&P’s owner, McGraw-Hill, for four months and leave the company at the end of the year. He will be replaced as S&P president by Douglas Peterson, chief operating officer of Citibank, the banking unit of Citigroup.

Satyam Gets $463.3 Million Tax Notice [WSJ]
India’s Satyam Computer Services Ltd. Monday said it has received a preliminary draft notice from local authorities for a tax claim of 21.13 billion rupees ($463.3 million) disallowing the exemptions claimed by the company and dealing a setback to its attempt to recover from a fraud in 2009.

Web Surfing Helps at Work, Study Says [WSJ]
Don’t feel guilty about browsing the Internet at work—turns out it may actually improve your performance. According to a new study, Web browsing can actually refresh tired workers and enhance their productivity, compared to other activities such as making personal calls, texts or emails, let alone working straight through with no rest at all. The study, “Impact of Cyberloafing on Psychological Engagement,” by Don J.Q. Chen and Vivien K.G Lim of the National University of Singapore, was presented last week in San Antonio, Texas, at the annual meeting of the Academy of Manage of management scholars.

Corporations pushing for job-creation tax breaks shield U.S.-vs.-abroad hiring data [WaPo]
Some of the country’s best-known multi­national corporations closely guard a number they don’t want anyone to know: the breakdown between their jobs here and abroad. So secretive are these companies that they hand the figure over to government statisticians on the condition that officials will release only an aggregate number. The latest data show that multinationals cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States and added 2.4 million overseas between 2000 and 2009.

My Response To Buffett And Obama [WSJ]
Harvey Golub: “Over the years, I have paid a significant portion of my income to the various federal, state and local jurisdictions in which I have lived, and I deeply resent that President Obama has decided that I don’t need all the money I’ve not paid in taxes over the years, or that I should leave less for my children and grandchildren and give more to him to spend as he thinks fit. I also resent that Warren Buffett and others who have created massive wealth for themselves think I’m “coddled” because they believe they should pay more in taxes. I certainly don’t feel “coddled” because these various governments have not imposed a higher income tax. After all, I did earn it.”

Romney plans to quadruple size of Calif. home [WaPo]
A Romney campaign official confirmed the report, saying the Romneys want to “enlarge their two-bedroom home because with five married sons and 16 grandchildren it is inadequate for their needs. Construction will not begin until the permits have been obtained and the campaign is finished.”

File Under Regulatory Capture: Deloitte’s “Fireside Chats” [Forbes]
Apparently the SEC has a historical society.

Accounting Reform, Sans the Reform [The Street]
Sweeping reforms of the accounting industry are being discussed, but whether they will survive industry lobbying efforts remains to be seen. Ask the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which helps define the rules about what companies report, or the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which keeps an eye on the auditors, about any particular trouble area and they’ll point to a new rule or a speech as evidence they are on the case. Given recent history, however, it is hard to take them seriously.

Michele Bachmann’s ‘war’ on the IRS [WaPo]
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) used to work as a lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service. Now she’s running for president and discovering, apparently, that not everyone loves the IRS. So this week she came up with a novel explanation for the principal job she’s held outside of elected office. “I went to work in that system because the first rule of war is ‘know your enemy,’ ” Ms. Bachmann told a crowd in South Carolina [last] Thursday.

Silicon Valley Seeks CFOs to Hop on IPO Train [CFOJ]
The IPO boom in Silicon Valley is creating another mini-boom in demand for experienced financial executives. While demand for new chief financial officers has been somewhat slow at Fortune 500 companies and private-equity backed firms this year, executive recruiters say the market is on fire in Silicon Valley.

No Easy Answer on Tax Issue [WSJ]
After two decades of bipartisan tax policy, nearly half of all American households don’t pay federal incolican presidential candidates are making a politically challenging case to change that fact. Most working Americans do pay Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes. But because of tax breaks for seniors and inducements for work and raising children, among other accumulated changes to the tax code, many manage to avoid income taxes altogether. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in July pegged that number at 46% of U.S. households for this year.

Democrats’ road tour strikes back at GOP’s stand against raising taxes [WaPo]
On Wednesday morning, as his tinted black bus pulled into Randy Hultgren’s congressional district, President Obama told residents that Republicans like Hultgren must be willing to raise taxes to reduce the deficit. A few hours and 90 miles away, Hultgren’s own constituents had picked up the message, repeatedly hectoring the freshman congressman at a town hall meeting to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations.[…] “I just have one question for you tonight,” said another [man]. “Did you sign Grover Norquist’s pledge to never raise taxes?” — referring to the promise that has been signed by most congressional Republicans, including Hultgren. “Don’t you have the confidence in your own ability in Congress to make up your own mind? You need Grover Norquist to tell you?” the man continued.

BofA’s Moynihan Says to Expect 3,500 Job Cuts [Bloomberg]
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan told his managers at the biggest U.S. lender to expect 3,500 job cuts this quarter. Some employees have already been informed of the firings, which are in addition to 2,500 reductions made this year, Moynihan said in a memo to staff yesterday. The cuts aren’t part of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm’s expense-trimming effort called Project New BAC, according to the document.

Let the “Condorsement” Games Begin [TAO]
Tom Selling: “The SEC has finally conceded that its efforts to adopt IFRS have failed. Damage control has begun in earnest, but the ship is still taking on water.”

Institutes attack US mandatory rotation plan [Accountancy Age]
UK institutes have questioned whether forced firm rotation will have the desired impact, saying it could be detrimental to quality and increase audit errors. ICAEW executive director Robert Hodgkinson said mandatory firm rotation has been debated for decades, concluding: “The evidence to date has not been supportive and has pointed towards a potential loss of audit quality”.

Top Stock Picker Jain Won’t Touch Chinese Banks on Bad Debt [Bloomberg]
“We have not owned a Chinese bank, and I don’t see owning one any time soon,” said Jain, who oversees about $15 billion, including three funds that beat 99 percent of peers this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. “If you look at the accounting, I don’t see how anyone could put a penny there.”

Analysis: Critics say new law makes them tax agents [Reuters]
A U.S. law meant to snuff out billions of dollars in offshore tax evasion has drawn the criticism of the world’s banks and business people, who dismiss it as imperialist and “the neutron bomb of the global financial system.” The unusually broad regulation, known as FATCA, or the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, makes the world’s financial institutions something of an extension of the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service — something no other country does for its tax regime.

Ernst & Young Announces Leadership Additions in the Carolinas [E&Y]
Charlotte OMP Curt Fochtmann will now run the entire Carolinas region.

SEC Accused of Destroying Files [WSJ]
An employee at the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused the regulatory agency of destroying at least 9,000 documents relating to inquiries of Wall Street banks and hedge funds. Documents that were destroyed related to corporate giants including Goldman Sachs Group, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, convicted fraud operator Bernard Madoff and hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, according to a letter from the employee’s attorney released Wednesday by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R., Iowa).

Obama to issue neweation, debt reduction [WaPo]
President Obama has decided to press Congress for a new round of stimulus spending and tax cuts as he seeks to address the great domestic policy quandary of his tenure: how to spur job growth in an age of austerity. Obama will lay out a series of ideas in a major address right after Labor Day, when he and a largely antagonistic Congress will return from vacation, the White House said Wednesday.

Accounting Chinese Audit Regulators Plan Washington Visit [WSJ]
A delegation of Chinese regulators will visit Washington in October as the U.S. and China continue talks on allowing American inspectors to scrutinize Chinese audit firms, the U.S.’s top auditing regulator said Wednesday.

Mandatory Auditor Rotation — The PCAOB Sails Off the Charts [Re:Balance]
In case you thought Jim Peterson was too heady for your liking, he opens this post with an exchange between Otter and Bluto.

Tax Court: Accountant Cannot Deduct Bathroom as Home Office [TaxProf]
What?!? Lots of business gets done in there!

Tracking time [ABD]
Again, we’ll refer you here if you have further questions.

Canadian Accountants Call for Simplification of Canada’s Tax Code [Tax Foundation]
Is there a trend yet?

PCAOB: Chinese regulators can no longer shut the door [Accountancy Age]
Chairman James R Doty […] said an arbitrary position of refusing cross-border collaboration “will no longer fly”, claiming market pressures make capitulation inevitable.

US appeals court backs government in tax shelter case [Reuters]
A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling against a former senior tax lawyer at Grant Thornton LLP and Coopers & Lybrand that banned him from selling bogus tax shelters costing the United States government up to $800 million in unpaid taxes. A three-judge panel for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected an appeal filed by A. Blair Stover Jr., who had sought to overturn a Missouri federal court decision in August 2010 barring him from promoting three tax schemes deemed abusive by the Internal Revenue Service.

Rick Perry, Texas, and Taxes [TaxVox]
Texas Governor Rick Perry, the latest entrant in the GOP presidential sweepstakes, swaggers into the race as the very personification of a low-tax, small-government, Lone Star politician. But his record on taxes over more than two decades as a legislator and governor turns out to be much more complicated (dare I say nuanced) than that.

Corporate Treasurers Take Turn in Spotlight [WSJ]
Anthony Scaglione was sitting at his desk at his Midtown Manhattan office on Aug. 5 when the news about the downgraded U.S. credit rating flashed on his Bloomberg terminal. “It was an “Oh s*** moment,’ ” says Mr. Scaglione, corporate treasurer for ABM Industries Inc., a janitorial and facility services provider with 100,000 employees. In the ensuing days, Mr. Scaglione would be called on to ensure the company’s liquidity as the lending environment grew murky and the stock market see-sawed. The pressure is on for corporate treasurers like Mr. Scaglione, who typically work behind the scenes under a company’s chief financial officer and are responsible for managing cash flows, acting as a point person with credit agencies and assessing the credit worthiness of banking partners. In recent weeks, they have found themselves working longer hours, frequently meeting with higher-ups, maintaining constant dialogue with their banks and revisiting strategic plans.

Warren Buffett’s Tax Dodge [WSJ]
Barney Kilgore, the man who made the Wall Street Journal into a national publication, was once asked why so many rich people favored higher taxes. That’s easy, he replied. They already have their money. That insight is worth recalling amid the latest political duet from President Obama and Warren Buffett demanding higher taxes on “millionaires and billionaires.” Mr. Buffett is repeating his now familiar argument this week, coinciding with Mr. Obama’s Midwestern road trip on the economy. Since the media are treating Mr. Buffett as a tax oracle, let’s take a closer look at some of the billionaire’s intellectual tax dodges.

Consumption Tax Would Ease U.S. Deficit [Bloomberg]
Make no mistake: The VAT would be a new tax. It would raise the total burden on U.S. taxpayers and, once it takes effect, would almost certainly take a bite out of consumer spending. But done in concert with broader tax reform, it would go a long way toward solving the country’s fiscal crisis.

Kashoo Announces Availability of Accounting App for iPad [Kashoo]
Kashoo’s iPad accounting app gives small businesses and entrepreneurs the flexibility to manage all aspects of their finances on the go, including monitoring key business metrics, creating and delivering invoices, recording expenses, tracking payments, and generating financial reports.

“Big four” safari: Shoot to kill [The Hill]
[G]lobal corporations don’t need global accounting firms, i.e. the big four, anymore. Regional headquarters of Fortune companies have no problem choosing their accounting firm on a regional level. Due to standardized accounting methods and technical capabilities, nowadays a consolidation of regional auditing results at the headquarter level is no problem. The response to the EU’s green paper was huge. 700 companies, associations and auditors participated in the consultation, sending in 10,000 pages of paper — an all-time record, but understandable. Because Barnier’s final goal is not about just breaking the audit oligopoly. It is about the separation of audit and non-audit services eventually.

The dual-taxation meme [Felix Salmon/Reuters]
There appears to be a trend to criticism of O^3.

Company report pace frustrates accounting experts [Reuters]
Author and lawyer Michael Young jokes about the days when it took more time to get some companies’ financial statements than it did for Columbus to discover America. Alas, those days are still here.

Google May Reap $1 Billion Tax Benefit from Motorola Deal [CFOJ]
Robert Willens, an independent tax and accounting expert who is president of Robert Willens LLC in New York, told CFO Journal that the NOLs are “a really significant item.” The former Lehman Bsaid Motorola has about $3 billion in NOLs. While the IRS restricts the entire amount of NOLs that can be applied after a change in ownership, Google should still be able to use a portion of them over time. Willens estimates Motorola could reduce Google’s tax bills by about $1 billion over the next six years, on an undiscounted basis.

PwC faces fine over JPMorgan audit [FT]
After a year-long investigation into the audit firm, the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board is taking disciplinary action against PwC for failing to meet the professional standards expected of it, and failing to report “with due skill, care and diligence”.

Memo to Staff: Don’t Panic [WSJ]
From company memos to “town hall” meetings, corporate leaders are looking at how they can jack up morale in the work place. At the same time, many are dealing with employees already skeptical of management—given the rounds of layoffs in recent years—and must choose their strategies carefully.

Interpublic sells half of its Facebook stake [FT]
Interpublic, the advertising group, sold half of its 0.4 per cent stake in Facebook for $133m to an undisclosed buyer. The sale is likely to put the spotlight back on to the secondary market for private company stock. The loosely regulated market attracted scrutiny from regulators earlier this year after shares in internet companies such as Facebook and Groupon began trading at multibillion-dollar valuations without public listings.

A war tax? It’s still not a bad idea [WaPo]
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney last Wednesday caught my eye when he talked about members of Congress, currently vocal about the deficit, who were on Capitol Hill over the past decade and voted for unpaid large tax cuts but “put two wars on the credit card without paying for them.” That last phrase reflected words used in 2007 by several House Democrats who wanted to institute a war surtax to pay for the then-increasing costs of U.S. activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. These days, one of them, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), believes such a levy should be on the agenda of the debt-reduction “supercommittee.”

Corporations are people too! [Tax Update Blog]
Mitt Romney had a great time at the Iowa State Fair.

IRS: Woman claims 19 non-existent children [SVMN]
The IRS says Coronel claimed that all the children had been born to her at a Los Angeles hospital on Dec. 11, 2002, then obtained fraudulent Social Security numbers for them and claimed them as dependents. Hospital records show she gave birth to one child, a boy, on that date.

KPMG Foundation Awards $400,000 in Scholarships to 40 Minority Accounting Doctoral Scholars [KPMG]
The students include 10 new recipients and 30 students whose scholarships have been renewed. Each scholarship is valued at $10,000 and renewable annually for up to five years.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich [NYT]
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors. These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

PwC admits JP Morgan audit failings [Accountancy Age]
PwC has admitted a formal complaint over its audit of JP Morgan Securities (JPMSL) for the seven years to 31 December 2008. Accountancy and Actuarial Disciplinary Board chief Cameron Scott welcomed the firm’s “responsible” position, saying: “Those that accept mistakes can learn lessons from them.” PwC failed to report that JPMSL’s Futures and Options business did not segregate client money, in contravention of rules set out by the Financial Services Authority.

Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion [Bloomberg]
Motorola shareholders will get $40 a share in cash, the companies said in a statement today. That’s 63 percent more than Motorola Mobility’s closing price on the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 12. Both boards have approved the deal. Google, whose Android software runs mobile phones made by Motorola Mobility and companies such as Samsung Electronics Co., gains patents it needs to compete against Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

SEC Reviews S&P Math, Possible Leak of Rating [Bloomberg]
The Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing the method Standard & Poor’s used to cut the U.S.’s credit rating and whether the firm properly protected the confidential decision, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. SEC inspectors are examining S&P’s policies for conducting such analyses and whether those procedures were followed when the New York-based firm downgraded the U.S.’s credit rating Aug. 5, said the person, who declined to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public.

What do young professionals want? [CPA Success]
Other than money, of course.

Accountant allegedly stole $241K from law firm[NF]
For two-and-a-half years, an accountant was allegedly using a prominent law firm’s bank account she controlled to allegedly pay her personal bills and even write herself double paychecks. Sharon Lynne Samples, 48, was booked July 31 and charged with taking $241,722 from the law offices of Lipscomb, Johnson, Sleister, Dailey and Smith, LLP, according to a Cumming Police incident report.

Bernie Madoff ditched by his wife of 52 years as she seeks reconciliation with son [Daily Mail]
The wife of Bernard Madoff has severed ties with the disgraced Wall Street financier and not seen him for more than six months, it has been revealed. Ruth Madoff, who has been married to the convicted fraudster for 52 years, has shunned her high school sweetheart as she allegedly seeks reconciliation with her son.

Deloitte Appoints Eric Openshaw to Lead U.S. Technology, Media and Telecommunications Practice [Deloitte]
In his new role, Openshaw will drive industry strategy, research, service development and delivery to the organization’s core [Technology, Media and Telecommunications] clients. Openshaw succeeds Phil Asmundson, who continues to lead Deloitte’s U.S. Media & Entertainment and Telecommunications as well as the Global Telecommunications sectors.

Short Selling of Stocks Banned in France, Spain [Bloomberg]
France, Spain, Italy and Belgium imposed bans on short-selling to stabilize markets after European banks including Societe Generale (GLE) SA hit their lowest level since the credit crisis. “While short-selling can be a valid trading strategy, when used in combination with spreading false market rumors this is clearly abusive,” the European Securities and Markets Authority, which coordinates the work of national regulators in the 27-nation European Union, said in a statement after talks ended late yesterday. National regulators will impose the bans

FASB Simplifies Goodwill Impairment Test [CFOJ]
Bowing to complaints from private companies, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is changing how companies perform their goodwill impairment tests. The changes to the standard, approved Wednesday, will allow companies to do a preliminary assessment based on qualitative factors to determine whether they even need to perform a goodwill impairment test.

Auditor to IRS: Speed it up [The Hill]
Because people are starting to notice this bureaucracy thing.

Tech Blogger Won’t Be Charged in Apple iPhone Case [WSJ]
San Mateo County Assistant District Attorney Morley Pitt said charges were not filed against Gizmodo.com’s Jason Chen or other employees, citing California’s shield law that protects the confidentiality of journalists’ sources. “The difficulty we faced is that Mr. Chen and Gizmodo were primarily, in their view, engaged in a journalistic endeavor to conduct an investigation into the phone and type of phone it was and they were protected by the shield law,” said Mr. Pitt. “We concluded it is a very gray area, they do have a potential claim and this was not the case with which we were going to push the envelope.”

I need to pee [AccMan]
Now I’m just peed I didn’t think of it first.

Behind the Numbers: Critical Financial Analysis in Litigation [Fraud Files Blog]
Tracy Coenen tells you how.

Why did Green Mountain Coffee Roasters miss red flags? [WCF]
Probably because they don’t read Sam Antar’s blog.

Ex-Marvell accountant arrested for insider trading [Reuters]
Former Marvell Technology Group Ltd […] accountant Stanley Ng was arrested on Wednesday as part of the government’s probe into insider trading, an FBI spokesman said. Ng, 42, was charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, according to a complaint unsealed on Wednesday.

Poll: Americans skeptical Washington can fix economy [The Hill]
Meanwhile, just 1 in 5 thinks Washington is “focused on the right things,” half as many as backed that statement in October 2010.

Is Obama Smart? [WSJ]
When it comes to piloting, Barack Obama seems to think he’s the political equivalent of Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager and—in a “Fly Me to the Moon” sort of way—Nat King Cole rolled into one. “I think I’m a better speech writer than my speech writers,” he reportedly told an aide in 2008. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m . . . a better political director than my political director.”

Sales up at UK arm of Deloitte [FT]
The biggewas the consulting business, which increased its sales by 13 per cent to £517m, aided by the integration of acquired businesses and extra financial services work. Gains in market share lifted auditing revenues 4 per cent higher to £652m, the group said, while the tax and corporate finance divisions posted increases of 5 per cent and 11 per cent respectively. However, the average profit distributed to each partner fell 13 per cent from £873,000 to £758,000 because of the cost of making new hires and increasing pay to retain existing staff.

Markets Sink Then Soar After Fed Speaks [WSJ]
The Federal Reserve sent investors lurching from worry to hope as it warned that the economy would remain weak for some time but said it was prepared to take further steps to shore it up. The Fed’s statement, which included plans to keep interest rates near zero for at least the next two years, ultimately sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 4%, its biggest daily gain since March 2009. Yields on Treasury bonds dropped as investor demand pushed up prices.

For Murdoch, a Board Meeting With Friendly Faces [NYT]
One [director] is a former Goldman Sachs president who helped News Corporation broker mega-deals. Another is godfather to one of Mr. Murdoch’s grandchildren. Another ran Mr. Murdoch’s Australian subsidiary, News Limited. And those are just some of News Corporation’s directors who are designated as independent — chosen because they comply with regulations intended to ensure that companies maintain a layer of objective oversight.

NYSE Seeks to Tighten ‘Reverse’ Deal Rules [WSJ]
The New York Stock Exchange wants to toughen the standards that “reverse-merger” companies must meet to list on the Big Board, in the wake of accounting questions at many Chinese companies that have gone public via such transactions. The exchange is proposing a series of “seasoning” requirements that would effectively delay an NYSE listing for reverse-merger companies and set bars they would have to clear to obtain it.

BofA Doesn’t Need to Raise Capital, Finance Chief Thompson Tells Nomura [Bloomberg]
Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the largest U.S. lender, won’t need to raise extra capital to meet new international standards, Chief Financial Officer Bruce Thompson told Nomura Securities International analysts. The bank will be able to comply by cutting expenses, selling assets and letting some holdings decline naturally as they mature by the time the rules become fully effective, Thompson said in a meeting with analysts led by Glenn Schorr in New York.

A Much Needed Accounting Lesson for Two Senators [Accounting Onion]
Namely, Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

People on the Move: KPMG Taps Chris Goodman as CMO [AdAge]
Goodman comes from Young & Rubicam and also did stints at Accenture and IMG.

Plante & Moran Elects 9 New Partners and One Affiliated Entity Member [P&M]
Six men and four women.

Swiss to Settle Tax-Evasion Dispute With Germany [Bloomberg]
Switzerland and Germany completed an accord to end a dispute over tax evasion by wealthy Germans holding cross-border accounts with Swiss private banks. As part of the settlement, Swiss banks will pay 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.8 billion) to the German government to cover the failure by their clients to disclose undeclared money in the past, the Swiss finance ministry said today in a statement.

Mad As Hell! [ZH]