Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Footnotes: The Biggest Bitcoin Heist Ever?; IRS Drones; Madoff “Henchman” Still A-Snitchin’ | 12.03.13

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

Ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski to be released on parole in January [Fox]

We all know the money's in Washington, but it's never been visualized quite like this [WaPo]

Morgan Stanley's Non-Scandalous Accounting Gaffes [Bloomberg View]

FASB admits that a 20+ year old rule on accounting for taxes isn't super helpful when it comes to accounting for taxes [AT]

The busy bees at TIGTA think the IRS needs to do some work to protect against ACA-related fraud [Bloomberg]

Imagine the IRS delivering notices via drones! [Pundits Blog via The Hill]

Cattle fraud is apparently a thing and a dude in Kansas has been sentenced to prison for it [AP]

Madoff Henchman Rats Out Co-Workers [Daily Beast]

The Sheep Marketplace scam is ongoing, with /r/sheepmarketplace trying to track down the scammer(s). Even if you aren't into Bitcoin and other such things you may not understand, you're talking about a $100 million theft and watching amateur Internet forensic accountants chasing the trail in real time, which is pretty amaze… unless the whole thing was an FBI honey pot anyway, in which case, carry on. [Daily Dot]

Related Posts

Footnotes: Even Aliens Pay Taxes; Hazing Tim Ryan; Government Accounting is Broke(n) | 09.26.14

The Federal Reserve's Artful Compassion for Households in 'Sobering' Condition [HuffPo] Court Rules Alien Needs […]

Just When You Thought You Were Out…

Return.jpgThere comes a time in every unemployed person’s stint as Costanza where you consider going back to the job you just quit. Or maybe you got canned but now they’re reaching out to you through the alumni network just to let you know how great you are nd dang, we sure miss ya.
The BBC was asking around about employment prospects in the new year and lo and behold, they interviewed Keith Dugdale, director of global recruitment at KPMG. Amongst other ramblings, Mr. Dugdale put it out there that KPMG is maybe thinking about asking you some of you to come back:

One thing KPMG is looking at is the notion of rehiring former workers to make use of their experience.
“We are putting a lot of effort into alumni activities,” Mr Dugdale says.

Oh sure, maybe the BBC is reading into it too much but it does make us wonder how many of you would consider going back to an employer that you left because of [insert reason]. Not because you’re desperate (well maybe you are) but perhaps you decided the grass wasn’t greener after all or you’ve got streak of forgiveness in you that you didn’t realize or you told them they had to beg — like get on your knees and beg and tell me you can’t live without me! And I want an iPhone. No! Two iPhones! — and…they did. Maybe we’re broaching the unthinkable but somehow we think some of you might miss the old digs and would jump at the shot to go back. Kindly satisfy our curiosity.

Legg Mason to Financial Crisis: 100 Years, You.

financial-crisis2.jpgThat’s it. It’s official. Worst. Crisis. Ever. If Legg Mason is your gauge on financial crisises, that is.
And since it is such a momentous occasion, guess what this calls for…wait for it…executive bonuses!
Courtesy of footnoted.org, we learn that Chairman and CEO, Mark Fetting’s received approximately a $3M bonus for “leadership of the company during one of the worst financial crises of the last 100 years, which particularly affected financial services companies”
Footnoted goes on to give us some perspective:

Just to make sure, we did a quick check for the word crisis (or crises) at other financial services companies and didn’t come up with anything that even came close. While the word was used in several other proxies, it wasn’t used in a way to justify a bonus and there were no pronouncements about this being the “worst financial crises”.

Okay, so Legg has some melodramatic types writing their filings. But how about some chicanery?:

Equally interesting is that while the board set Fetting’s bonus at 21% of the bonus pool in June 2008, Legg Mason’s loss of $1.9 billion last year meant that there was no bonus pool. But that didn’t stop the bonus because as the comp committee writes in the proxy the net loss was due to just two items and without those two items, the company “would have had net income, and the plan would have produced a total bonus pool large enough to accommodate the annual incentive awards made. Although the terms of the plan do not explicitly provide for the exclusion of those items, the Committee considered the items to be extraordinary expense.”

Seriously, who’s going to let two measly items stop them from paying executives bonuses out of a bonus pool that didn’t really exist? This is financial wartime people, we will not be denied.

Legg Mason calls it: The worst financial crisis [footnoted.org]