As we’ve discussed, the sudden departure of Wells Fargo’s now-former CFO, Howard Atkins, has been a bit of a mystery. The bank stated that Howie quit for “personal reasons” but Chris Whalen, for one, wasn’t buying that story and stated that it was an “internal dispute” at the Stagecoach Shop and “public behavior suggests significant problems in the bank’s internal systems and controls as defined by the Sarbanes-Oxley law.”
Then John Carney got all heresay yesterday, reporting:
Others say that the departure stems from a heated argument between Atkins and the CEO of Wells Fargo, John Stumpf. Still others say that there could be even more personal reasons for Atkins leaving.
This is pretty fun because this “heated argument” could have been over something awesome like Atkins’s using Stumpf’s private commode without permission or a spurious challenge in their weekly Scrabble® match. Whatever the reasons for Atkins’s departure, all this speculation got the gang over at The Street wondering that maybe – just maybe – KPMG’s risk management team had soiled themselves over the whole situation and asked the audit team to start drawing up their resignation papers.
KPMG said Friday that it remains Wells Fargo’s […] external auditor, though the firm wouldn’t comment on recent criticism that Wells’ financial disclosures aren’t up to snuff. KPMG spokesman George Ledwith confirmed that the Big Four accounting firm is still working with Wells Fargo, which plans to file its 10-K annual report by the end of the month. Howard Atkins, who had been CFO of Wells Fargo for nearly a decade, resigned unexpectedly last week and won’t be signing off on that report. His replacement, Tim Sloan, will do so instead. “Yes, KPMG LLP is the external auditor for Wells Fargo & Company,” said Ledwith.
So what prompted this brief line of questioning is, in itself, a mystery. KPMG resigning as the auditor of Wells Fargo is about as likely as John Veihmeyer throwing all his copies of Rudy into an incinerator. But then again, maybe The Street knows something we don’t. Was/is/will there be any doubt that KPMG will remain the auditor of Wells Fargo? Rampant speculation and nightmare scenarios are welcome. And if you’re in the know, email us.
Auditor Stands By Wells Fargo [TS]
They leaned hard into DEI with this one.
Yeah not subtle about it at all.
Does DEI just mean non-white to you?
There’s a lot of ads with black men wearing glasses, greying beards, wearing business suits etc pitching tech and other high end services. The Madison Ave ad agencies must follow the same formula
KPMG will let you slide on Saturdays mostly, but if you’re not checking in on stuff Sunday night you will be at risk of stinkeye
Yes! “Ben” comes through! That’s “leadership.”
This is the result of a highly financialised civilisation where money plays an outsized role of people’s lives. Money serves a purpose but if it becomes the sole determinant of one’s survival and quality of life, that’s when it becomes problematic.
Gross
Choosing between attending a child birthday party and staying gainfully employed are merely concerns of the entitled. Don’t cry a river with the blue collars and hard hats who make this country great.
Those crying the loudest have no problem with our corrupt welfare system.
Even given the fact that B4 leadership tend to be exceptionally clueless on what normal people value, I still can’t believe the people at Deloitte thought this was a good idea. I legit thought it was satire the first time I saw it.
That guy is obv a virtual background
Don’t kid yourselves. This isn’t just Deloitte. This is the accounting industry as a whole.