Joe Francis was sentenced to time served late on Friday for his guilty plea on two counts of filing false tax returns and one count of bribing Nevada jail workers in exchange for food. He had spent a total of 301 days in prison.
Apparently this was such a surprising turn of events that when he was outside the courtroom Francis seemed unsure about what happened saying, “I think we won that one.” Authorities resisted taking advantage of Francis’ bewilderment and he was not escorted back to jail.
In addition to the time served, Francis received one year probation and was ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution. This allows Francis to get back to ‘the business at hand‘ which must involve assaulting Playboy Playmates and then claiming it was self-defense. Good to have you back, Joe.
Judge OKs plea deal from ‘Girls Gone Wild’ founder [AP]
Girls Gone Wild Founder Gets Plea Deal [Tax Girl]
‘Girls Gone Wild’ Founder Joe Francis Gets Time Served in Tax Case [TaxProf Blog]
Earlier GC Coverage: SHOCKER: Joe Francis May Have Attracted Slimy Business People
Joe Francis Plans to Argue That Anything Related to Topless Girls is Deductible
Category:
Preliminary Analytics | 11.09.09
• I’m doing ‘God’s work’. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs – Hey! Us too! [Times Online]
• Bear Stearns Casualty Earns $1.6 Million at Poker World Series – Steven Begleiter was a 24 year vet at Bear Stearns who sat on the bank’s management and compensation committees. [Bloomberg]
• Health Bill Faces Senate Heat – “If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,” Sen. Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.) said on Fox News Sunday. With the passage of the House bill, Congress moved closer than ever to providing Americans with near-universal health insurance” [WSJ]
• Kraft Makes $16.3 Billion Hostile Bid for Cadbury – Kraft is done playing. They want confections and they want them now. [NYT]
• Bad credit card debts ‘will soar’ – “Bad credit card debts may reach as much as 9% of all outstanding balances by the end of next year,” according to PwC. [BBC]
• Don’t forget to submit your caption on the Feed the Pig at the NYC Marathon caption contest!
Review Comments | 11.06.09
• SEC sees evolution in insider trading – “A top U.S. securities regulator said some funds may now view insider trading as a central tenet of their business models, rather than as a one-time opportunity for big rewards as sometimes happened in the 1980s.” [Reuters]
• The Bust that Worked – Thanks CIT! [CFO]
• Degradation of the Mind – Urban Dictionary has butchered accounting terms. [Accounting Nation]
• Accountants on Twitter? You Better Believe It! – We’re here. [CPA Examination Preparation Blog]
• More Celebrity Tax Woes – Including completely the most underrated actor of our time, Eric Roberts. Best of the Best 2? C’mon, people. [TaxProf Blog]
Crowe Horwath Is Amped for International Fraud Awareness Week
What? Your firm hasn’t reminded you that November 8 – 14 is International Fraud Awareness Week? Shameful. Lucky for you, Crowe Horwath is all over this.
Crowe is offering tips to its clients “on how companies can help turn their own personnel into their best fraud preventers and fraud detectors” because they are sick and tired of being the ones finding all of it.
Here’s a taste of their ideas:
• Know who you hire &ndash Avoid guys in tracksuits and with short attention spans.
• Create an ownership environment &ndash That stapler? It’s yours.
• Keep employees informed &ndash Emails about the latest dead-end marriage in the office do not count.
• Establish sound internal controls &ndash Unless you don’t have to.
• Implement checks and balances &ndash Again, optional.
While we admire Crowe’s attempt to get proactive, we’re concerned that, inevitably, the “Army of Fraudbusters” will start using their newly acquired fraud detection skills for outing their office enemies for petty crimes such as leaving food in the fridge, ass-photo copying and the like.
Create An Army of Fraudbusters Within Your Organization [Press Release]
Grant Thornton Names a New COO*
Grant Thornton named Lou Grabowsky as its new Chief Operating Officer today. Grabs starts his new gig the same day as Stephen Chipman and Ed Nusbaum start in theirs so we’re guessing that will be quite the rager to kick off the decade.
LG takes over the day-to-day responsibilities at GT which no doubt includes overseeing the press release elves:
“Lou’s credentials are impeccable, and he will serve the firm with his characteristic commitment to excellence as Chief Operating Officer for Grant Thornton LLP,” says Stephen Chipman, Grant Thornton LLP CEO-elect. “His personal and professional strengths complement my own, and we have already been working on transition issues and other matters of high priority for the U.S. firm.”
Whoa, Steve-o, feeling ignored? We won’t forget that you’ve got strengths buddy. You didn’t get the big chair for nothing.
Back to the real reason for this little post, Grabs is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and an Arthur Andersen survivor. He was even the partner in charge of assurance services for the Dallas office from ’91-’97 so he may have known David Duncan. SCANDAL!
Just joshin’ you Lou. Enjoy the new gig.
Lou Grabowsky named Chief Operating Officer of Grant Thornton LLP [Press Release]
*Managed to only mention ‘Global Six Accounting Firm’ once
Caption Contest Friday: The AICPA Will Convince You to Save Money By Freaking You Out
We don’t know who the hell the AICPA has working in the marketing department but they need to get in touch. We have some questions.
Below is Benjamin Bankes at the New York City Marathon. If you’re not familiar with Ben, he is the spokesswine for the AICPA’s “Feed the Pig” campaign.
We’ve presented three photos for your caption suggestions. See the rest after the jump.
Rules are the same: Submit possible captions for all the photos in the comments. We’ll choose our favorites — with preference given to those with an accounting bent — and then let you vote for the best one.
KPMG Has Its Reasons for Banning Google Talk
Klynveldians have been warned about certain software that should not, under any circumstances, be downloaded by any of you:
In the firm’s defense — and since they didn’t mention it — many of these programs are used by you to waste precious billable hours complaining to each other about a myriad of things including why the Phil Mickelson hats only come in black and white and where Tim Flynn and John Veihmeyer buy their suits (we hear Marshall’s but that could be total bupkis).
Furthermore, we’re not going to sit here and say that none of these programs present a legitimate risk. That would be foolhardy and insensitive.
What we do wonder about is what “disciplinary action” involves. Feel free to wildly speculate on this in the comments.
Job of the Week: GTT (Gone to Texas)?
Since we’ve just gone through another week marred by layoffs, it might be time to consider some options.
In the 19th Century, people went to Texas to escape their troubles, so we figure this could be a possible solution for somebody (including those that already live there).
NetworkersMSB has a position in Dallas that could be your ticket back to the high life.
Location: Dallas
Title: Finance Manager
Compensation: $90,000 – $100,000
Responsibilities: Monthly preparation of financial reports for the Group Financial Controller; Managing the company’s financial accounting, monitoring and reporting systems; Liaising with our accountants to ensure all State and federal tax obligations are met; To assist in the preparation of the year end statutory accounting for audit UK purposes; Providing annual budget information for respective market unit; Cash flow forecasting; Developing financial management mechanisms that minimise financial risk; Assisting in the development of sister companies financial departments within the North and South American region.
Requirements: Strong knowledge of accounting and US GAAP; Knowledge and experience of state and federal tax obligations; Experience in payrolling of employees; CPA qualified
See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and check out the rest of the jobs at the Career Center homepage.
Irony in the Daily CPA Letter
From a reader:
Here are two headlines, in this order, on CPA Daily Letter this morning. Fannie Mae decides to rent to people that are currently not able to pay their mortgage? Peaked my interest and made me ask the question, “WHAT?” Then, I scrolled down and read the second headline…and then thought…well, yeah…that would be the necessary outcome…time for a new business model anyone?
While the reader has a good point (i.e. Fannie Mae is still a giant shitshow and should seriously consider going back to the drawing board) we’re more curious as to who over at the CPA Letter has the sense of humor. Then again, it could be one giant coincidence.
>75: Study. Sit. Pass. Get on with Your Life
Editor’s note: Welcome to >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
Alright. So this guy comments and his question is too long and complicated to keep my attention. Kindly SUMMARIZE your question, send it to us and >75 will get to it when she stops pounding her head on her desk.
Now then, please pay attention.
I need help from some vets. I did my undergrad in finance, but spent the last 7 yrs in the family business, hotels. Always hated it. Being an owner, I know what it’s like to be the ‘man’ and having to manage a manager, i also know what it’s like to be an overworked slave to a business as a property manager myself. I’m effective as a manager, win awards, employee turn over below industry standards, profitable, etc…on the macro level as an asset manager, i have a pretty good business savvy from HR/training, finance, basic accounting, leadership, capital raising, basic auditing. In the hotel business, your inventory has a 24 hour shelf life. I can think quick on my feet under stressful situations, and think stragetically as well. So at 30, i have the business IQ of someone close to 40. I’m a worrier and 24 hour business dealing with public has burned me out as i like people, but i’m not that much of a ‘people’ person..though i can turn it on when needed. i have recently been diagnosed with ADD which explains, while capable, i had trouble in school.
Stop. Just stop. First and foremost: the CPA exam isn’t an IQ test so please remove that from the equation, brainiac. We are talking about discipline and how well you can plan out your time.
I congratulate you on your illustrious career but no one cares about that at the Board of Accountancy. You have to meet the educational and experience requirements in the state you apply to and sorry, life experience doesn’t count in any of those states.
If you have the units and prepare correctly, you can do it. But get all this “wordiness” out of your plan, just learn the information, sit for the exam, get 75s on everything and move on with your life + CPA.
That’s my humble suggestion.
As for not being a “people” person, congratulations, you’re already on your way to being a CPA.
If anyone has a CPA exam question for >75, let us know. I’ll try to be nice but at least informative.
Here’s the obligatory CPA Review disclaimer (I work for Roger, how do you think I figured all of this out? TT BPO 75 or 90, bitches).
Apparently Accounting Rule Convergence Is Not 100% Total Convergence
Yesterday the FASB and IASB got together and spent 23 pages convincing everyone that convergence of accounting rules will happen by June 2011. If you haven’t been convinced by the steps one paragraph statement that was issued saying how ‘encouraged’ she is about the latest re-re-affirming.
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that there will be a single set of accounting rules — for the entire financial reporting universe — rolled out and everything will be right with the world in June 2011.
But will it be a single set of standards? Edith Orenstein of FEI Financial Reporting Blog:
It is interesting to note that the FASB-IASB joint statement speaks in some places of converging to a ‘single’ set of standards, and in other places of converging to a ‘common’ set of standards. To some, these terms can mean a world of difference. However, the terms are often used interchangably by many different parties. For example, here are some excerpts from the joint statement:
We are redoubling our efforts to achieve a single set of high quality standards within the context of our respective independent standard-setting processes.
Our goal is to develop together common standards that improve financial reporting in the US and internationally and that foster global comparability. Achieving such improvements is consistent with the objectives of the IASB that are set out in the Constitution of the IASC Foundation. It also fulfils the responsibility the FASB has under US law and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2003 Policy Statement to consider, in developing standards, whether international convergence is necessary and appropriate in the public interest and investor protection.
(emphasis original)
That clears it up, doesn’t it? So it’s either a “single set” or “common standards”? FEI Blog thinks it’s a progression, “Presumably, once a set of ‘common standards’ is acheived, the next step would be to officially adopt one set (again, presumably, IFRS, which is used in over 100 countries) as the ‘single’ global standard.”
While this may be the case it still doesn’t mean that everything will be the same.
CFO:
“Convergence doesn’t necessarily mean the same,” says D.J. Gannon, a Deloitte audit partner and the firm’s expert on international financial-reporting standards. In fact, Gannon says, there is no expectation that any of “the lingering differences” between rules that are already converged will be handled through standard-setting. “So the bottom line is that companies [reporting results under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles] are going to have to deal with those differences if they apply international financial-reporting standards at some point in the future.”
Good lord. So for all practical purposes, it sounds like there will still be differences. Frankly, we’re disappointed in this revelation. If someone had told us from the get-go that it wasn’t going to be 100% the same accounting rules we wouldn’t have made such a big stink about the absolute impossibility of the endeavor. Going forward we’ll be taking this even less serious.
FASB, IASB Reaffirm Convergence By June, 2011 [FEI Financial Reporting Blog]
“Convergence Doesn’t Necessarily Mean the Same.” [CFO]
Preliminary Analytics | 11.06.09
• How to Audit-Proof Your Tax Return: Don’t e-File – Those IRS reviewers aren’t too keen on looking at numbers on paper. [TaxProf Blog]
• Unemployment in U.S. Jumps to 10.2%, Payrolls Fall by 190,000 – Double digits for the first time since ’83 [Bloomberg]
• AIG posts second consecutive quarterly profit – $455 million is not going to cut it. Step it up AIG. [Reuters]
• Inside-Trade Probe Snares ‘Octopussy’ – Whew. Without nicknames, this story wouldn’t be taken nearly as seriously. [WSJ]