Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: EY’s New Harassment Case; Who’s Happy in Consulting; Bare Minimum Monday | 2.20.23
Since it’s Monday and all, let’s start with this: ‘Bare Minimum Monday’ is the latest workplace trend hitting productivity We’ll write this one up later: Accounting firm Ernst & Young launches probe into sexual harassment claim filed by Hong Kong employee after allegation goes viral online [South China Morning Post] Employee says she and her […]
Friday Footnotes: Deloitte Partner Scammed By Other Deloitte Partner; Big 4 Legal Grows; A $3.5 Billion Error | 2.17.23
Big 4 EY expects ‘massive approval’ in vote to split up company [Reuters] Partners in EY are expected to give approval for spinning off the company’s consulting arm and listing it on the stock market by the end of the year, a senior EY official said on Tuesday. Over 13,000 partners – out of EY’s […]
Minnesota Throws TPTB the Finger and Introduces Legislation to Offer an Alternate Pathway to CPA Licensure
It was only a couple days ago that the Journal of Accountancy published an interview with NASBA CEO and President Ken Bishop in which Bishop sternly warns states against even thinking about lowering the CPA licensure requirement to 120 units, something something mobility blah blah. To save you a click, here’s a relevant snip of […]
New Recruits Are Allegedly Telling EY They’re Really Excited About the Split
Amanda Iacone has written a piece for Bloomberg Tax about the EY split and how it stands to shake up an already shaken industry, the whole thing is worth a read. We already know there is a talent war, and we also know that PwC in particular is eager to snap up unhappy EY talent […]
Layoff Watch ’23: KPMG Let Some Advisory People Go Today
Article photo from a scathing review of KPMG’s metaverse space Alright folks, the moment we’ve been saying wasn’t going to happen to us now has: layoffs are here. Bet you feel dumb for saying firms won’t be laying anyone off because they don’t have enough people to lay off eh? I know I do. We’ve […]
The Accountant Shortage Isn’t Bad Enough For NASBA to Entertain Dropping the 150 Hour Requirement
When we talk about why no one wants to be an accountant anymore, a handful of things come up in every thread. Let’s quickly get them down in case an alien who just landed on Earth this morning Googles “accountant shortage,” arrives on this article, and wishes to learn more about the causes. Salaries — […]
Morning Morning Accounting News Brief: NASBA Sticks to the 150 Rule; PwC Reports a New Gap; 60 Years of Misery | 2.13.23
Good morning and welcome to a brand new week. Last week was oddly quiet but that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, right now is “keep your head down and get your work done” time for a good chunk of the profession. Oh, here’s last week’s Friday Footnotes if you want to catch up […]
Friday Footnotes: Florida Man’s Tax Problem; Accountants Are Walking Out; BDO Assures on Tether | 2.10.23
Talent As tax season approaches, accounting firms are short on staff [Marketplace] Oh hey! Planning ahead: How these employers will grow and retain talent this year [Silicon Republic] When it comes to engaging with talent, PwC recently launched its people value proposition, which aims to give employees flexibility with how they work and help them […]
BDO Will Audit EY Consulting, or Whatever That Business is Gonna Be Called
The Wall Street Journal has written a pretty detailed account of comments EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio made to WSJ’s CFO Network Summit earlier this week, scroll down to skip past a bunch of words and watch the clip. Of note, the split vote is now expected to happen in April. “I […]
Former KPMG Employee’s Parents Awarded $6.5 Million In Wrongful Death Lawsuit
The family of 25-year-old Peter Smith, an audit associate at KPMG who died of Lyme carditis—which occurs when Lyme disease bacteria enter the tissue of the heart—on July 2, 2017, was awarded $6.5 million by a jury in Cumberland County, ME, last week after deciding that a Mercy Hospital doctor had failed to accurately diagnose […]
Robert Half Reports Finance and Accounting Talent is in High Demand (Duh)
According to the results of a recent Robert Half survey, companies across the U.S. are hungry for talent and of all professional roles, finance and accounting are nearly the most in-demand, second only to technology. The survey also shows that few respondents expect to freeze hiring or eliminate positions in the first half of this […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Auditor Demand; EYer Not Coming in on Monday; Reentering the Workforce | 2.6.23
Good morning and Happy Monday! Here’s some news to start the week and give you something to talk about around the virtual watercooler. Auditing is the most “in demand” finance career right now according to a new study from CMC Markets, an online trading platform, which analysed monthly Google searches using Ahrefs for jobs within […]
Friday Footnotes: Know Your Value; Retired EY Partners Complain; ‘Rest For Success’ | 2.3.23
Hail Eris! Today is 2/3/23 and this is your Friday roundup of all the week’s news that wasn’t fit to print (or make fun of). We appreciate you stopping by! Big 4 EY considers handing retired US partners cut of proceeds from spin-off [Financial Times] EY has told retired US partners it is considering giving […]
If You Let 23-Year-Olds Sign Off on Audits, You’re Gonna Have a Bad Time
On January 24, short seller Hindenburg Research dropped a report called Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History, in which Hindenburg accuses Indian conglomerate Adani Group of engaging in “a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades,” among other things. A […]
Berdon Got a Lot of Dates But Ultimately Chose to Hook Up With Citrin Cooperman
Thanks to the commenter who brought this to our attention. Accounting firm merger madness continues, this time the union of Citrin Cooperman and Berdon announced on the 1st. We should have seen it coming as Citrin Cooperman has been busy the last 15 months, growing revenue by $200 million and completing several mergers since private […]
Accountants Are the Referees of Business, Says Guy Who Would Know
There’s another article about the accountant shortage today and this time it’s in Insider. There’s nothing in there you don’t already know — enrollments are down, boomers are retiring, the process of becoming a CPA is extra and sucks, kids need to be convinced that accounting is great, blah blah — but they did get […]
CliftonLarsonAllen Just Gained 200 People
Image via CliftonLarsonAllen CLA has merged with New Jersey’s SobelCo (a firm we’ve heard only good things about) and produced the obligatory press release about the union. Shout out to Allan Koltin, the prenuptial counselor of accounting firm marriages, who helped with the deal. News release: Today, CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP), the eighth largest accounting firm […]
The Most-Fined Big 4 Firm in the UK is Raising Audit Fees, Knows Clients Will Complain About It
Bloomberg reported today that KPMG UK CEO Jon Holt told them the firm plans to raise audit fees, news that comes on the same day we find out KPMG UK revenue increased 12% to £2.72 billion ($3.3 billion) for their fiscal year ending in September. Much of that did not come from audit however, deal […]
Here’s How People Did on the CPA Exam in 2022
The AICPA has released Q4 CPA exam pass rates which means we have a cumulative score for all of 2022 YIPPEE. As we did not discuss pass rates at all last year, let’s take a look at the whole chart and see how CPA exam candidates performed in 2022: Section Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: ESG Compliance Heats Up; Deloitte Disclosures; AI Says It Isn’t a Threat | 1.30.23
Deloitte & Touche LLP partners and staffers failed to make financial disclosures required to ensure the independence of their audit work, according to new details from the firm’s 2018 PCAOB inspection. [Bloomberg Tax] Britain’s accounting watchdog said on Monday it will monitor whether auditors were making spot checks on their compliance with environmental, social and […]
An Audit Associate at KPMG’s NYC Office Has Died
Ed. note: an earlier version of this article used male pronouns based on the information available at the time. We have been informed the associate was female, confirmed this information with the NYPD, and have updated pronouns in this article. We have also removed a link to a dubious outside source. I debated even posting […]
Friday Footnotes: Higher Salaries Lead to Higher Fees; EY Auditors Quit; Senator Rags on Greedy Accounting Firms | 1.27.23
Big 4 EY auditors escape potential Wirecard sanctions after leaving profession [Financial Times] Germany’s audit watchdog closed investigations against four current and former EY auditors involved in inspecting collapsed payments firm Wirecard after they handed back their professional licences and left the profession earlier this month. Under German law, Apas can only probe and sanction […]
EY Germany Gives 40 Partners and 380 Staff the Boot to Boost Profitability After That Whole Wirecard Thing
EY has been tightening the purse strings over the past several months ahead of the big Project Everest split, the vote on which remains delayed and should happen before the end of this quarter. The firm did not hand out mid-year bonuses in December and sources say that travel, training, and even hiring are on […]
RSM Does Not Aspire to Be KPMG
RSM International CEO Jean Stephens spoke to Financial Times recently and let everyone know that her firm is totally open to a little wheeling and dealing that would bump them up from their current spot as the sixth largest firm (#5 on the IPA 500). Coincidentally, RSM just released their revenue numbers and they are […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: PwC Partner Banned; Salary Predictions; Public Accountants Have Had It | 1.23.23
Last week someone complained about the format I’ve been using for this linkwrap since I started doing it many, many Mondays ago so just for them, here’s some bullet-free bullet points in lieu of one giant paragraph. Don’t say I never did anything for you. Brazilian retailer and PwC client Americanas filed for bankruptcy, its […]
Local Accounting Firm Baffled That Desperate Laid Off People Don’t Want to Work There
When big layoffs began in tech last year, accountants everywhere justifiably celebrated for having chosen a career that may not be the most prestigious (or exciting or lucrative…) but will always be in demand. While their employees were quietly boasting about not losing their jobs, it seems EY leadership was waiting in the wings hoping […]
Friday Footnotes: EY Can’t Hire Tech; John Doe Sues the PCAOB; Auditors Can’t Find Torpedoes and Missiles | 1.20.03
Practice Management How firms use stay interviews to boost retention [Journal of Accountancy] Job interviews have long been an essential part of the hiring process. But now, some public accounting firms are turning the lens on themselves. They’re conducting “stay” or “retention” interviews with existing employees. The goal is to understand how they can be […]
The Largest Accounting Firm in Kentucky Thinks a Tower Will Win the Talent War
You ever been in a position where you’re juggling a few different offers from roughly equivalent firms? Of course you have. What factors do you consider when making this important decision? Salary, obviously. Culture, perhaps. Was the guy who interviewed you a dick? That definitely rates. What about commercial real estate? Anyone? MCM CPAs & […]
Fourteen People Who Inspired Future Tax Criminals in 2022
The IRS Criminal Investigation unit has released its top cases for 2022 and in it we get reality TV personalities, a rogue tax preparer, some garden variety PPP fraud, and even a former decathlete with his own Wikipedia page. Pretty sure some of these people showed up in Accountants Behaving Badly, an irregular feature we […]
We Had to Scroll Really Far Down to Find a Big 4 Firm on This Glassdoor Best Places to Work List
Life at Deloitte was trumpeting an appearance on Glassdoor’s latest Best Places to Work list yesterday so naturally we swung over to the list to see what’s what. At @Deloitte, we’re committed to our people’s professional & personal well-being. That’s why we’re thrilled our organization has been named one of the Best Places to Work […]
If Your Parents Were Poor, It Takes Longer to Climb the Ladder at KPMG (No Really)
Big 4 firms spit out all kinds of research — very little of which rates a mention beyond maybe somewhere in a linkwrap if that — but this research from KPMG we’re about to share with you (which we did bury in a linkwrap some weeks back) deserves a callout of its own. Not because […]
A Spanish Communist Is Concerned About Excessively Long Hours at Big 4 Firms
This story was highlighted in yesterday’s Monday news brief but it deserves its own spot so that future generations might Google “Big 4 abusive practices” and stumble upon it. Financial Times reported that the labor ministry of Spain sent inspectors to the Madrid offices of Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC back in November in the […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: KPMG Vet Quits on Christmas; PwC Resigns; ‘A Veil of Legitimacy’ | 1.16.23
An accountant used his position in the accounting department of the Volunteer Energy Cooperative (VEC) in Tennessee to steal nearly a million dollars, he used a refund scheme to transfer money into his personal checking account and make payments to his credit cards and his wife’s credit cards. A discussion about money laundering in Australia: […]
Friday Footnotes: PwC in Trouble?; A Backwards Accountant; Audit Committee Musical Chairs | 1.13.23
Big 4 Isio Group inks deal to acquire Deloitte’s U.K. retirement advisory business [Pensions & Investments] Consultant Isio Group agreed to acquire Deloitte Total Reward and Benefits, the U.K. pensions advisory business of Deloitte, a spokesman confirmed Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals from the […]
Remote Accountant Who Billed Too Many Hours Owes Her Former Firm $2700 For ‘Time Theft’
NPR has a strange story of a Canadian accountant and a firm with time tracking software installed on work laptops that should give remote workers pause before submitting their next time sheet. NPR: When Canadian accountant Karlee Besse was fired for being unproductive at her job, she found herself up against not only her former […]
Deloitte US Picked a New CEO and Chair, Sent Out an Email
How many times can we reuse this stupid Deloitte billboard picture? Deloitte US announced this morning that Jason Girzadas has been selected as chief executive officer and Lara Abrash has been selected as the chair of the board, beginning June 4, 2023, subject to a partner ratification vote. Jason succeeds outgoing CEO Joe Ucuzoglu who […]
Woman Quits Her Job to Be CFO For Big 4 Business That Doesn’t Exist Yet
Although EY’s 13,000 partners have yet to vote on the audit/consulting split, the firm continues to march ever onward toward separation, announcing in December that Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio would head up consulting and US chair Julie Boland will oversee audit. And a few days ago Financial Times reported that EY has […]
PSA: Change Your AICPA Password NOW (UPDATE)
Who penetrates networks in the dark with a hood over their head? Silly. h/t @cbriancpa for tweeting this story out Hackers are claiming they gained access to a database with more than 140,000 emails and passwords from the AICPA according to Cybernews, the only outlet reporting on this as yet. We have reached out to […]
Guidehouse Laid Off a Bunch of Old Grant Thornton Partners After the Public Advisory Practice Merger (UPDATE)
Ed. note: a previous version of this article included “Rumor” in the headline. As it is considered confirmed, we’ve removed it. Update at the bottom. Back in August when it was announced that Guidehouse would be buying Grant Thornton’s public sector advisory practice, we wondered out loud if layoffs might be expected as they so […]
House Republicans Go After IRS Agent Funding But Leave Technology Funds Alone Because Even the GOP Agrees IRS Call Wait Times Suck
This lady is going to be on hold for a long time, her phone isn’t even plugged in to the wall. The GOP-led House voted 221-210 on Monday to eliminate almost 90 percent of $80 billion in new IRS funding under the Inflation Reduction Act, much of which is supposed to be used to fund […]
Netflix Picks an EY Alum For Its Next Chief Accounting Officer, Replacing the Last Guy Who Dipped After Three Months
I was going to make some kind of Sense8 “canceled before its time” joke about Netflix’s last CAO leaving after just three months alas nothing came to me which is probably for the best because it would have been a stupid joke anyway. Deadline reports that Netflix has found a new CAO, hopefully this one […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: EY Wants to Buy; Losers Dump NFTs For Tax Purposes; CPA Demand in 2031 | 1.9.23
Deloitte announced today that Anna Taylor — former tax and economic policy principal advisor to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — has joined Deloitte’s Washington National Tax practice as the deputy managing principal of the Tax Policy Group. KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne said the key emerging obstacle that the firm found in its […]
Friday Footnotes: The Metaverse’s First CPA Firm Gets Sued; CPA Exam Blueprints; Mad Mergers | 1.6.23
Wooooo it’s the first Footnotes of 2023! Here’s what’s going on, there’s not a whole lot of it: Long Read FTX Customers Take Enron, WorldCom Path in Legal Fight for Cash [Bloomberg Law] FTX customers going outside bankruptcy court to recover losses from Sam Bankman-Fried’s failed crypto empire are using a legal path that has […]
It’s Official: 120 Units is All You Need to Sit For the CPA Exam in Illinois
Ed. note: I couldn’t find a good image to go with this post so I’m using this dog. Dogs are always good. According to the AICPA, a traditional four-year undergraduate program is not adequate for obtaining the requisite knowledge and skills to become a CPA. The reasons offered for this center around the increasing complexity […]
FASB Took It Easy in 2022
While the PCAOB has been on a mission to scare the pants off of auditors everywhere in the past year with record fines and scary speeches, the Financial Accounting Standards Board took a much more chill approach to 2022. A Thomson Reuters piece published last week informs us that FASB ended the year having issued […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Welcome to ’23; Deloitte Gets Chilly; Stop B*tching About Busy Season! | 1.2.23
Welcome to 2023! You made it! So happy to see you. Let’s see if anything happened while I was gone last week. … Wow, nothin’ huh? Alright, this news brief is going to be extra brief I guess. Deloitte has lowered its UK office temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees F) to cut costs […]
Friday Footnotes: EY Cancels Christmas; A Very Sucky PwC Report; Should We Tax Robots? | 12.23.22
Welcome to the last Footnotes of 2022! We appreciate you stopping by as always and hope you get a chance to recharge over the holidays. We will be out of office next week but have scheduled some things to run while we’re gone for those individuals who are severely addicted to accounting shitposts and simply […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Social Class and Career Progression; New GAAP Taxonomy Dropped | 12.19.22
Quick note: there will be no news brief next Monday, we are out for the week and will be running nothing but shitposts, repeats, and tedious top ten lists. Monday Morning Accounting News Brief will resume on January 2, 2023. Please try not to do anything newsworthy between now and then, I have the utmost […]
Friday Footnotes: EY Money Troubles; Fast Food > Public Accounting; From Athlete to Associate; | 12.16.22
Big 4 EY Looks at Backup Plans on Split Amid Higher Costs, Slower Growth [Wall Street Journal] Ernst & Young’s leaders are looking at backup plans for the firm’s split to address rising funding costs and a potential slowdown in growth that could imperil the rich payouts promised to partners, according to people familiar with […]
Carmine Di Sibio Will Be King of Advisory If EY Splits
It was 1985 when Italian-born Carmine Di Sibio joined EY as an auditor, 34 years later he would ascend to global chairman and CEO, a role he continues to occupy today. Soon, he might end up leading the consulting business should the firm’s 13,000 partners vote for a consulting/audit split in a few months. Although […]
No One Should Be Surprised to Learn FTX Used QuickBooks
Before the House Committee on Financial Services on Tuesday, recently-appointed FTX CEO John J. Ray III gave testimony to back up comments he made to the New York Times last month about FTX being a “complete failure” the likes of which he hadn’t seen in two decades. Back in the day, Ray was chairman of […]
Accounting Fraud Watch: Ex-Wirecard CEO’s Trial, Cronos Gets Smoked, Bad PR for Ex-PR Firm CFO
The Fall of Wirecard, a Tech Scandal That Rocked Germany, Reaches a Courtroom [New York Times] The fraud trial of former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun began in Munich on Dec. 8. Braun and two other former executives face charges of defrauding creditors of $3.7 billion, through false accounting from 2015 until Wirecard collapsed in June […]
EY Dumbly Nixes Mid-Year Bonuses
On a Friday all-hands call, EYers learned not to expect a bonus from Santa this year. This despite EY having its best year in 20 years. In September, EY announced revenue of $45.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, an increase of 13.7% from prior year and the most year-over-year growth the […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Living in Mom’s Basement; OnlyFans Tax Investigations; Finance vs. Accounting | 12.12.22
“I don’t care how messy your accounting is … you’re definitely going to notice if you find an extra $8B to spend,” tweeted Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong about FTX. “Even the most gullible person should not believe Sam’s claim that this was an accounting error.” Today we learn that Arkansas is not being hit […]
Friday Footnotes: A (Fake) Day in the Life at Deloitte; DYNAMIC Merger For Grant Thornton; CPA Awareness | 12.9.22
News Trump Organization found guilty on all counts of criminal tax fraud [CNN] A Manhattan jury has found two Trump Organization companies guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives. […]
We Forgot to Mention KPMG Got Caught Cheating Again
The PCAOB announced Wednesday it has imposed $7.7 million in penalties against KPMG Colombia (Firm: $4 Million Penalty; Individual: $25,000 Penalty), KPMG UK ($2.6 Million), and KPMG India (Firm: $1 Million Penalty; Individuals: $75,000 Penalty) for a variety of infractions. Failure to cooperate with a PCAOB inspection, cheating on training exams, signing off on blank […]
Sounds Like the EY Split is Going Forward Whether Partners Want It to Or Not
EY Global Managing Partner Andy Baldwin was on a Reuters Breakingviews podcast recently and in the interview — besides suggesting that other Big 4 firms will follow EY’s lead toward a split despite these other firms saying they have no plans to do that — he made it sound like the split is happening one […]
PwC Declares a Poaching War on EY
As EY continues to hammer out the details of the audit and consulting split, PwC has set its sights on adding EY partners to The New Equation. Lots of EY partners. In October, PwC Global Chairman and 2012 Going Concern Hottest Accounting Firm Leader winner Bob Moritz told the Financial Times in no uncertain terms […]
Lonely Workaholics at PwC UK Will Have to Find Some Other Place to Go For Christmas
Last year, PwC UK chairman Kevin Ellis wrote a lovely advertisement article in The Telegraph letting his people know that if they have literally nothing better to do, PwC employees can spend Christmas at the office. He framed it as a kindness for those who may be lonely — or the opposite, ready to beat […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Gen Z Ruins Accounting; EY Hammers Out Some Deets; Internal Control Controversy | 12.05.22
How is it December already? Not a lot going on this time of year, let’s find some things anyway. Deloitte believes 2023 will be the year of virtual reality. E. Cohen and Company, CPAs of Rockville, Maryland, merged into Marcum effective December 1, adding to Marcum’s presence in the Mid-Atlantic. The PCAOB has been busy […]
Friday Footnotes: Why People Leave Public Accounting; Audit Workloads Up; Terrorist Clients (Literally) | 12.2.22
Slow news week this week. We managed to find some things worth mentioning anyway as we are experts in slow news weeks (698 weeks and counting!), enjoy. Talent Why People Leave Public Accounting [CPA Journal] Writes Edward Mendlowitz, CPA/PFS, ABV: There are many reasons why CPAs decide to leave public accounting firms. Based on my […]
By the Numbers: The Accounting Firms That Received $635 Million in PPP Loans
Remember PPP loans? The Small Business Administration defines PPP as “an SBA-backed loan that helps businesses keep their workforce employed during the COVID-19 crisis.” Remember all the layoffs and pay cuts at accounting firms we were meticulously tracking in early 2020? Transparency group OpenTheBooks.com crunched the numbers using Small Business Administration data and found $635 […]
EY Reports a Rise in Naughty Behavior Now That People Have Returned to the Office
EY Oceania has released its second Value Realised Scorecard — a wide-ranging report on how the firm is doing — and Daily Mail Australia immediately latched on to page 33: Workplace Incidents: DM’s salacious headline “EY rocked by soaring number of sexual misconduct and bullying complaints as big four accounting firm workers return to the […]
Carillion Liquidators Roast KPMG: “A Competent Auditor Would Have Detected the Misstatements”
The Carillion failure is still working its way through the courts and now KPMG is accused by Carillion’s liquidators of missing multiple red flags, the likes of which should not have been missed had KPMG had any clue what it is doing. So say the liquidators. WSJ: KPMG received £29 million from Carillion without qualifying […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Deloitte on Microtransactions; More EY Split Roadblocks; Have You Become Irritable? | 11.28.22
Happy Monday! Here’s some stuff that’s going on. Several US audit firms told the Financial Times that they had elevated some or all of their crypto-related clients to the status of “high risk”, triggering a more thorough audit that will take longer and lead to higher bills; some clients could ultimately be dropped altogether. KPMG […]
Friday Footnotes: How EY Fights Poaching; Lack of Staff Is Closing Doors; Accounting to Biglaw? | 11.25.22
Big 4 FRC to fine Deloitte £440k over 2018 audit [Accountancy Today] The Financial Reporting Council’s Audit Quality team has issued a notice of a proposed sanction on Deloitte, proposing a regulatory penalty of £440k after it was determined that the Big Four firm failed to comply with the auditing framework in its audit of […]
Friendly Reminder: If You Are Going to Commit Fraud For Clients, Charge More
Remember the Chrisleys? The flamboyantly wealthy TV couple Todd and Julie Chrisley of Chrisley Knows Best? On Monday, Todd was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Julie to seven years for an assortment of crimes like fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Also tied up in this bonanza of federal […]
The Elliott Davis/Whitley Penn Merger Fell Apart in the Eleventh Hour, RIP Elliott Penn (UPDATE)
This past summer, the second biggest news around the virtual watercooler of professional services (after the EY split) was that Elliott Davis and Whitley Penn would be combining forces to become — *dramatic flourish here* — Elliott Penn. “By proactively bringing these two firms together, Elliott Penn leverages the strengths of both firms and establishes […]
EY Survey Ironically Finds the Four-Day Workweek is the New Standard at Many Companies
According to the latest EY Future Workplace Index survey, many companies are moving toward a four-day workweek thanks in part to competition for talent. The survey reveals surprisingly optimistic attitudes from company leadership on real estate investment despite economic tightening, says the press release, a sign that employers want you back in the office at […]
Confirmed: People Who Work For Deloitte Are Zombies
We always suspected there was something odd about people who work for Deloitte, now we know. They’re zombies! It seems Deloitte offered up a unique recruiting ad during yesterday’s long-awaited Walking Dead series finale. Excuse the potato quality of this screen recording, I’m on a Windows 3.1 machine. I’ll see if I can dig up […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Firm Sponsors Art Contest; ‘EY Will Sell Advisory Again’; Big Spenders | 11.21.22
“While inflation continues to impact consumers at every turn, they are unwilling to let it dampen the holiday spirit,” said Nick Handrinos, vice chair, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and U.S. retail, wholesale and distribution and consumer products leader. From Jan Bouwens, Professor of Accounting, Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands to Financial Times: “EY […]
Friday Footnotes: Retired EY Partners Hate on the Split; It’s a Raid!; ‘An Alphabet Soup of Technology’ | 11.18.22
Big 4 EY split threatens to weaken both sides of firm, say retired partners [Financial Times] More than 150 retired EY partners have written to the accounting firm’s leadership objecting to the radical plan to split its consulting and audit businesses. In a three-page memo seen by the Financial Times, the retired US partners say […]
The Guy Who Saw Enron Through Bankruptcy Calls FTX the Worst He’s Ever Seen
If you aren’t familiar with him, John J. Ray III oversaw Enron’s liquidation many years back and now he’s stuck with the monumental task of unraveling FTX after the crypto exchange collapsed last week. @jonwu_ dug through FTX’s Chapter 11 First Day Affidavit so you don’t have to and in it, Mr. Ray has given […]
Supposedly PCAOB China Inspections Went Well, the Environment Was Not Necessarily Considered
People who presumably aren’t paid by the Chinese government to say “everything is great!” have told Reuters that the PCAOB’s trip to Hong Kong to finally inspect Chinese audit work went pretty well. Reuters: U.S. regulators gained “good access” in their review of auditing work done on New York-listed Chinese firms during a seven-week inspection, […]
Ex-BDO Atlanta Employee Who Shot and Killed Her Former Boss Was Indicted on Murder Charges
A Fulton County grand jury on Nov. 11 indicted Raissa Kengne, a former IT audit manager at BDO USA in Atlanta, in the August shooting deaths of her ex-supervisor at the accounting firm and the property manager of the condominium building where she lived. Kengne, 34, was charged with two counts of murder, two counts […]
A Couple PwC Partners Have Been Quickly Assigned as Joint Provisional Liquidators of FTX
Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves of PwC were approved by the Supreme Court of the Bahamas as joint provisional liquidators of failed crypto exchange FTX. From the press release [PDF]: On 10 November 2022, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (“the Commission”) applied to the Supreme Court to appoint Mr. Brian Simms, KC as a […]
We Feel Obligated to Tell You About This Forensic Accountant Turned ‘Professional Girlfriend’
Insider ran a story the other day about Mia Lee, a former Wall Street forensic accountant who loves collecting scotch, racing fast cars, and fighting mixed martial arts. Writes Insider: These interests, and her inability to feel shame, guilt, and fear make her the perfect girlfriend-for-hire for wealthy business and tech executives in New York […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: A Billionaire KPMG Alum; EY Split Stalled (Again); NSA Accountants | 11.14.22
Good morning and happy Monday! Here’s some news: The EY split vote has been delayed, says FT: The main stumbling block in setting dates for ballots is finalizing the so-called global framework agreement, the legal document covering details of how assets, liabilities and people will be split between the businesses. Deloitte has been awarded a […]
Friday Footnotes: Behemoth Big 4 Firms Get Behemothier; Audits Get Harder; Eliminate Clients! | 11.11.22
Ed. note: if you like accounting news, which you clearly do because you are reading this, we encourage you to sign up for our newsletter for even more accounting news. Oh and a hearty thank you for your service to the veterans out there. Hopefully some of you got the day off. Hiring ‘There’s definitely an […]
The Accountant Shortage Makes One Office Get Really Desperate
You know how if you’re on Tinder for a while and you’re not getting many matches because your standards are too high so you widen the net a bit and start overlooking things like “if you can’t handle me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best” in people’s bios? Well that’s pretty […]
The CFO at Tyson Foods Had a Kick Ass Weekend
Tyson Foods CFO John Tyson (yep, that Tyson) was arrested in Arkansas on Sunday after he allegedly got drunk and decided to take a nap in a stranger’s bed, probably naked. A police report says a the woman whose bed he passed out in found him snoozing at 2 in the morning, reeking of alcohol […]
Some Partners at PwC Cyprus Did Not Want to Lose Their Russian Clients So They Started Their Own Firm
In March of this year, Deloitte Global posted a little message on its website about the then-developing situation in Ukraine saying the firm had “suspended business operations and client service in Ukraine as we focus on taking care of our people and their loved ones.” Within days, that message changed to saying they are “currently […]
The Supreme Court Had Better Things to Do Than Hear Appeal From Ex-Dallas Cop Who Murdered PwC Accountant
Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger knows a thing or two about someone being shot down. The Dallas Morning News reported on Monday: The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to review the case of former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for the murder of Botham Jean in his apartment. The high court’s […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Audit Fees Are Up; Salary Expectations Are Too High; Sus SEC Shizz | 11.7.22
Several of America’s largest accounting firms have explored the possibility of taking private equity cash in recent months, as money from buyout funds adds fuel to a mergers and acquisitions boom across the industry, reports FT. CFO.com wrote about the accountant shortage and suggested four ways to address it, not one of them was “pay […]
Friday Footnotes: PwC Does Some Things; Bad Client Dumps EY; ‘Going From Balloon Animals to Accountancy’ | 11.4.22
Footnotes is a weekly wrap-up of all the news in and around the accounting profession, published every Friday at 5 p.m. Eastern. To get more headlines delivered on the regular, subscribe to our newsletter. Big 4 PwC Retirees Get Early Approval for $267 Million Pension Deal [Bloomberg Tax] PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s $267 million settlement with retirees […]
Twitter’s Chief Accounting Officer Is Rumored to Have Left the Building (Literally)
The Washington Post has written about the abrupt culture change happening at Twitter since Elon Musk entered the picture on October 27 and buried among the complaints of secrecy and fear is a little mention of the CAO GTFOing. UPDATE: Twitter’s chief accounting officer is rumored to have been “walked out” of the building and […]
Did a PwC Partner Leak Client Financial Data? A Court Will Decide
We briefly mentioned the following case in an August 2020 link dump of several Big 4 lawsuits going on at the time, there is now a date set for court so we’re throwing out an update. The allegation is that former PwC north of England head Ian Green leaked sensitive information about his client, telling […]
Joe Ucuzoglu Ascends the Throne of Deloitte Global, Maybe Someone Will Care This Time
Deloitte announced today that the man with the hardest to spell last name in accounting Joe Ucuzoglu will be taking over for Punit Renjen as Deloitte Global CEO. Yes, there’s a press release: The Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (Deloitte Global) Board today announced the selection of Joe Ucuzoglu as Deloitte Global CEO, subject to a […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Fear and Loathing at KPMG; FASB? More Like SLOWB; EY, Esq. | 10.31.22
Happy Spoopy Day! Here are your morning headlines: As critics suggest FASB is too slow to make new rules, FASB chair Rich Jones hits back: The standards for financial statements are “designed to provide the best information for capital allocation decisions” by investors, he said, but “at the end of the day, it’s applied by […]
Some High Level Folks Have Abruptly Left BDO and No One Seems to Know Why (UPDATE)
People who know know there’s something happening at BDO USA. We are working on getting to the bottom of a few things that we can’t quite share with you until we have more information but in the meantime, we need to talk about how leadership is apparently getting axed — or leaving? — and no […]
EY Reminds Us That Audits Provide ‘Reasonable Assurance,’ Not a Guarantee That Billions of Dollars Aren’t Hidden From the Balance Sheet
The NMC Health collapse of 2020 is still haunting EY UK, this time in London High Court as NMC administrators accuse the firm of failing in their duties and not noticing “one of the biggest frauds ever alleged at a FTSE 100 company.” The administrators, whose job it is to find some funds to repay […]
EY Israel Has Rejected the Split
Financial Times is reporting that EY Israel is joining EY China in rejecting the proposed split of audit and consulting services. “From our point of view in the Israel business, the split will not create benefits,” said EY Israel Managing Partner Doron Sharabany to FT. EY China’s decision was based on regulatory hurdles that could […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: CPAs Are Overworked (Duh); EY’s New Toy; Metaverse Party! | 10.24.22
From last Friday’s Footnotes ICYMI: Deloitte is delaying offers in India, KPMG flunks audit inspections at twice the rate of other firms, PwC is hiring more minorities, and EY is putting out press releases about all the hiring it is doing in the UK. Speaking of press releases, EY announced that it has expanded its […]
Friday Footnotes: KPMG Is Twice as Bad as Other Firms; Upskill or Die; Hella M&A | 10.21.22
Big 4 KPMG flunks US overseas audit inspections twice as often as rivals [Financial Times] US regulators were twice as likely to find flaws in audits conducted by the overseas affiliates of KPMG than those of any other Big Four accounting firm, an analysis of inspection data shows. The findings raise further questions over KPMG’s […]
The Dallas Cowboys Are Getting Some Extra Accountants With This CohnReznick Merger
CohnReznick announced a merger with Dallas firm BKM Sowan Horan and the Dallas Morning News took the opportunity to trumpet the happy nuptials of the official accounting firm of the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas Morning News: CohnReznick, the 15th largest accounting firm in the U.S. and the official accounting firm of the Dallas Cowboys, says it […]
A New Zealand Accountant Took Client Retention to a Whole Other, Insane Level
Stuff reports that an as yet unnamed New Zealand accountant is now in trouble with the country’s accountancy body for allegedly harassing clients with debt collectors after the clients tried to sever their relationship, manufacturing invoices for services that were never received, altering tax documents, and spreading rumors about rival accountants getting it on with […]
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: The Diversity-est Big 4 Firm; An EY Record; PCAOB Stream | 10.17.22
EY’s Manchester office hired the most students of all EY’s UK offices; the Manchester office recruited 104 new students, the firm recruited a record 1,473 students into its UK business this year (up 35% compared to 2021). 32 leading industry commentators, CEOs, CFOs and board members from across the world have contributed their views on […]
Friday Footnotes: Big 4 Nixes Legal Practices; EY Looks the Other Way; Auditors Get Lectured Again | 10.14.22
Big 4 The drunken Big Four partners who are paid $1m+[eFinancialCareers] Combined with other recent incidents, including the tragic case of Michael Brockie, a 28-year-old PWC audit manager who lost a large portion of his brain following a fall after a drunken work outing, and the death of Aishwarya Venkatachalam, a junior at EY in […]
Deloitte Partner Who Got Sh*tfaced Drunk and Made an Ass of Himself at the Horse Races Will Be Retiring
You know how they always say accounting is a small world and you should take care not to burn bridges? Well Stephen Cahill, partner and head of Deloitte UK’s executive compensation practice, decided to say “fuck that and fuck you too” this past June when he went on a sexist, racist tirade in the company […]
Donald Trump Jr. Admits He Probably Would Have Failed Intermediate Accting, Had He Taken It
Today in Business Insider: As sole trustee for the family business, Donald Trump Jr. routinely signs his father’s financial statements — but he still insisted during a recent sworn deposition that he has very little actual understanding of accounting, New York officials revealed Thursday. Asked about “GAAP,” the generally accepted accounting principles that must be […]