Hey and good morning. Got a little news for you. If you have some news of your own, you are welcome to email or text with tips or links you think we should read.
Let’s lead with this:
At 32, a Malaysian man walked away from a well-paid multinational job, traded his suit and tie for a small stall, and started selling fried chicken in his hometown.
For years, he measured success in numbers: grades, salaries, and promotions.
He majored in accounting, scored top marks, and landed a starting salary of RM4,500 [$963.86 USD], nearly double what most graduates earned at the time.
But the reality was draining.
“Stuck in traffic every day, scolded by the boss over small matters until I had no dignity left, having to watch clients’ moods, and bringing work home on weekends. Gradually, I couldn’t even recognise myself,” he wrote, adding that even his mother noticed his declining health.
The turning point came after a colleague’s offhand remark:
“You studied so much, but in the end, you’re still just doing accounts for others.”
You know what happened next.
Good for him. Life’s too short to live that way if you don’t want to.
Here’s an accountant behaving badly from India:
A 27-year-old man was arrested for allegedly defaming a woman banker from the Rander area, that resulted in cancellation of her engagement. The accused, an accountant with a company in Sachin, allegedly created a fake Instagram account of the 25-year-old woman banker, who was his friend, and sent defamatory messages to her fiance.
“The accused did not want the woman to marry someone else. So, he created the fake Instagram ID to defame her, believing that if her engagement was broken, she would agree to marry him,” police officials said.
According to police, the accused used the fake profile to claim that the woman was a lesbian and of “bad character”. He also falsely alleged that his brother had earlier been engaged to her but had broken off the engagement. Disturbed by the messages, the woman’s fiance called off the engagement, prompting the her to lodge a complaint with Rander police.
Bloomberg Law/Tax/Whatever has a long-read for you this morning: High-Profile Frauds Renew the Spotlight on Audit Firm Failures
The red flags seemed bright.
Fake transaction documents handed to auditors. A bribe offered to convince an auditor to look the other way. A campaign by top partners to retain a client—a bank that would fail only weeks after getting a clean audit.
Those are among the allegations leveled in a lawsuit and a congressional report this year that have revived concerns about age-old problems for the audit industry: its inability, and lack of motivation, to identify and respond to headline-grabbing risks like fraud.
The whistleblower lawsuit by a former EY partner said the firm hasn’t closed the gaps exposed in 2020 by a cluster of accounting scandals involving its clients, including a $2 billion fraud by failed payments processor Wirecard.
And a great quote from Lynn Turner: “The auditors time and time again just will not take management to task,” said Lynn Turner, chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1998 to 2001.
In a somewhat related story, the former chairman of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) said KPMG requested way too much damn documentation and Deloitte wasn’t nearly as nitpicky. You should note here that “1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal” has its own Wikipedia page.
Former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) chairman Tan Sri Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said audit firm KPMG was unfair in requesting additional documents related to the company’s overseas investments.
The international audit firm refused to sign off on 1MDB’s 2013 financial statements after the latter failed to provide documents related to its US$2.3 billion investment in Brazen Sky Ltd in Hong Kong.
Testifying as a defence witness in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s corruption trial for misappropriating billions of 1MDB funds, Che Lodin said KPMG’s refusal to sign off on the financial statements stemmed from a disagreement between parties regarding the process.
“First, there was a delay. Then, there was a misunderstanding about how it should be done.
“When we switched to Deloitte, they were happy to sign off on the financial statements.
“Perhaps KPMG had its own unique requirements according to its standards, but those were not necessarily standard requirements,” he said during cross-examination by deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar today.
Deloitte’s former consulting leader is off to go head up US Soccer at an important time:
The US Soccer Federation tapped Deloitte executive Dan Helfrich as its first chief operating officer, a move to continue revamping its business ahead of a crucial period.
Helfrich, who recently served as chief executive officer of Deloitte Consulting, will oversee daily operations of the century-old organization, with a focus on improving business practices, according to a statement.
The federation is entering a significant stretch, with the US hosting the 2026 World Cup, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the 2031 Women’s World Cup. Part of the organization’s mandate is to develop US talent and run the national teams. That means it will be facing even more pressure with major tournaments on US soil.
PwC Australia announces they’re upskilling their auditors. Given what’s happening at PwC in the US right now, our Aussie friends should be wary if they start throwing around the T word too much.
By upskilling our people to use the new platform, they’ll be able to spend less time on routine administrative tasks, and more time with working with clients to solve problems and add value. There are numerous ways we’re upskilling our people to use next generation audit:
- Digital Academies: Every new hire in our Assurance team participates in a compulsory Digital learning Academy, which includes modules about generative AI and how to use our AI tools most effectively.
- Digital Accelerators: This is our Australian network of over 50 PwC AI champions who champion the use of our AI tools and help our teams transform client engagements by embedding AI-thinking into every audit.
- Training to direct AI agents: We train our auditors to direct AI agents, not the other way around. We call this human-led approach “the human in the loop”. So we’ll continue to teach our auditors vital skills such as professional scepticism, critical thinking, and keeping client engagement front and centre.
Some wisdom from female accounting firm founders courtesy Accounting Times:
At the Women in Finance Summit on Friday (14 November), panellists and accountants Simone Palfreyman and Natalie Lennon shared lessons in entrepreneurship, overcoming challenges and building a fulfilling career for themselves and their employees.
Palfreyman explains her route to firm ownership and how it turned out for her:
Being her own boss allowed Palfreyman to only work school hours – including not working school holidays – and prioritise her family. Despite being told “you can’t do that,” Palfreyman said she ended up being so busy her books were closed and she had to hire a part-time accountant.
“It literally started as I wanted to be a mum, but I really didn’t want to give up my profession. So it was a way for me to succeed on both levels and also then provide a chance for other people to do the same,” Palfreyman said.
“So we’ve always had flexible work, working around childcare, school times and just giving people that chance to do both. You shouldn’t have to pick your career or your family.”
Remember kids, there’s more to life than the frantic public accounting grind.
A 28-year-old accountant from Ireland making €88,000 a year including bonus ($102k USD) explains how she spends her money and her time in this series from The Journal. It’s always interesting to me hearing how other people live.
Monthly expenses
Transport: €50 (I get the train to work and don’t own a car as I live close to the train station)
Rent: Mortgage is €1,000 each (my partner pays the other half)
Household bills: We both put in about €600 each month to cover all other bills including food
Phone bill: €7.99 with 48
Health insurance: Don’t have health insurance
Groceries: Covered in household bills above
Loan: I had to take out a €30,000 Revolut loan last year which I am trying to pay off as soon as possible. I pay €630 monthly, but have about €16,000 left at the moment. I am trying to pay this down as quick as possible as the interest is so high
Hair: €100 every six weeks
Nails: €50 every six weeks
OK that’s plenty for a Monday morning. Give me a shout if you need me and have the best of weeks, you.