Bess and Greg are getting entrepreneurial over at DB and are probably going to need someone help them count the asston of cash they’re going to rake in as a result.
Those of you thinking about forming your own firm to pick up the ganja engagement probably have the best shot.
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Deloitte, Grant Thornton Settle with Parmalat Investors
U.S. Investors in Paramalat — the disturbingly long-life milk producer — have settled their lawsuit with Deloitte and Grant Thornton for $8.5 million and $6.5 million respectively.
Personally, if you make the decision to be associated with a company that consciously screws with the natural dairy production of a bovine, we’d say you’re on your own. However, this is America, where if you lose an asston of money on an investment (despite the morally ambiguous nature of said investment, not to mention the shiesty management), you sue.
The case was brought by several funds on behalf of thousands of investors who said they lost money from Parmalat’s multi-billion-dollar fraud.
“It is very rare that worldwide coordinating audit networks enter into settlements like what we have,” said James Sabella, a lawyer at Grant & Eisenhofer PA in New York representing the investors, in an interview.
Lead plaintiffs include Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe Ltd, Cattolica Partecipazioni SpA, Capital & Finance Asset Management, Societe Moderne des Terrassements Parisiens and Solotrat, court documents show.
We don’t know about the statement that settlements are “very rare”. The Big 4 has paid out nearly $6 billion in settlements since 1999 and settlements this year have included Deloitte/American Homes and E&Y/Akai.
Regardless, the good news for the investors is at least they got something. The bad news is that it was far less than the amount they claimed to have lost:
The U.S. equity investors believed they suffered $138.2 million of damages, but Sabella said their claims might have been reduced by earlier settlements. He also said taking their case to a jury could have been “full of difficulties.”
A Deloitte spokesperson declined to comment pending the approval of the settlement by Judge Lewis Kaplan. Grant Thornton did not immediately return our email requesting comment.
This latest development in the story that never ends Parmalat case is the first that we’ve reported that doesn’t involve the persistence of the company trying and failing and trying again to chase down banks and auditors for money related to the company’s bankruptcy in 2003. From the looks of it, we’ll be following these developments long into the next decade.
Lehman Working to Pay Off Debt, One Tchotchke at a Time
In a couple months it will be at the one year anniversary of the collapse Lehman Brothers. In order to catch you up on the firm’s progess in paying off the $250 billion in debt owed to creditors, we proudly present The Lehman Store, courtesy of eBay.
So far the Lehman Store has 100% positive feedback with comments such as: “Great Lehman tie and excellent delivery time.” and “A+ SELLER”.
Lehman couldn’t be more pleased, “‘We are really excited to be able to offer this to the public because there is a demand,’ said Lehman spokeswoman Kimberly Macleod in a telephone interview.”
“There is a demand“, people. And since there are currently 66 items on the auction block, you’d better get on this, PRONTO.
Lehman Holds EBay Garage Sale, Hawking Trinkets to Pay Off Debt [Bloomberg]
Is the Era of Work/Life Balance Over?
Did it ever exist? We hope accounting firms have gotten their act together and don’t have to resort to more layoffs even though rumors still persist.
Whether the shooting is over or not, it’s a pretty sure bet that, at the very least, lots of you are doing the same amount of work with less people on your team. So any illusions you had about work/life balance before have progressed to full blown poppycock.
The question remains though, is your firm still pitching this as one of their “core rhetoric values” (insert respective buzzword)?
Continued, after the jump
Call us idealistic but it seems that with everything that has happened over the last 12-18 months, most firms would want to level with their employees. You know, give them the straight shit:
“Look, we’re really sorry but we’ve got to drop this whole work/life balance thing. We just can’t keep a straight face any more.”
It’s a very tricky situation that firms find themselves in since recruiting is in full swing. Painting the rosy picture for the recruits but leveling with current employees at the same time? Is this even possible?
What’s your firm’s latest message? Are they still encouraging the work/life balance or has slowly reached the “not applicable” stage? Did it ever exist for you at your firm or have you been deleting those emails since the day you walked in the door because you knew it was bupkis? Discuss in the comments.