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Let’s Talk About Creative Accounting Themed Halloween Costumes

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

I know what you're thinking. Creative and accounting-themed just don't go together. But like chocolate and potato chips, sometimes unexpected combinations are the best.

We've previously discussed Halloween ideas for uncreative accountants, from the accounting police to the audit trail. Did anyone actually take our advice? Who knows. That was a long time ago so they've probably long since left public accounting; seeing as they are probably still in therapy recovering from that dark time in their life, they likely don't talk about the time they showed up at the office in a cop outfit and went around counting things (A Counting Cop, get it?).

We know you auditors are probably going to wear the same costume you wore last year but just in case you're looking for ideas, let's bat some around.

For starters, we've got Taxed to Death by @JKleinsmithCS, who says he walked around with a stack of Forms 1310 in his hand moaning "Claim my refund" in his best The Walking Dead extra voice.

We're still trying to figure out how to pull off that reverse merger costume, but in the meantime, let's share ideas.

How about PCAOB inspectors? That would be easy, just stand around making snide comments about the quality of your colleagues' work.

Or perhaps you and three friends could go as the Big 4. Wear exactly the same outfit but all of you spend the night acting as though you are better than the other guys.

That's all we've got for now. Your turn.

 

 

 

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CFO Confession: HealthSouth Edition

It might be a fair statement that we like to talk a little trash here at Going Concern. We do our best to embrace our natural inclination. However, every once in awhile we try to spread some positive news.
Today’s attempt at a positive story comes courtesy of Aaron Beam, a former CFO at HealthSouth. Beam was CFO at HealthSouth when the fraud first began in 1996. Beam describes his decision to make the numbers up this way, “one night, during the second quarter of ’96, I said, ‘OK, let’s do it,’ and we credited revenue that did not exist and we debited assets that did not exist.”
Not exactly the most sophisticated fraud in the world but whatevs. The Street and Richard Scrushy demanded results.
And so it went, until Beam left in 1997. HealthSouth continued to commit accounting fraud until 2002 when it imploded. Beam testified against “Hannibal Lecter” Scrushy but the slimeball walked on the criminal charges only to be found liable for damages to the tidy sum of a shade under $2.9 Billion.
As for Beam, he spent 3 months in a non-FPMITA prison and now speaks to business students around the country about ethics and has a lawn-service business.

I’m trying to turn a big negative into a positive, because there is such a need for ethics in the business world today, and I’m in a unique position to talk about it. If we can teach college students that they’re going to face these kinds of temptations every day in the business world, we can make a difference.

WTG man, and hey, we’re being serious.
“I Should Have Said No.” [CFO.com]

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