Hey. How’s about some chilly October morning news?
Deloitte will be paying investors $34 million related to the collapse of a nuclear power project they audited:
Deloitte has agreed to pay $34mn to investors who blamed the auditor for losses stemming from the collapse of one of US’s largest nuclear power projects, a rare legal settlement by a Big Four firm.
Former shareholders in the South Carolina utility Scana said Deloitte failed to spot red flags and allowed management to hide mounting problems with the construction of two nuclear reactors a decade ago.
Scana shares tumbled when it eventually abandoned work on the reactors in 2017, leading to its cut-price sale to a rival utility and jail time for its former chief executive, who pleaded guilty to misleading regulators. The fiasco also pushed construction company Westinghouse into bankruptcy.
“Deloitte stands behind the quality of its audit work and is participating in this settlement to avoid the ongoing cost and distraction of extended litigation,” said the firm in a statement.
There’s a Fallout/Vault-Tec joke to make here but it’s too early for me.
Three-quarters of normies surveyed think accounting courses should fall under STEM.
A recent survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) revealed that three quarters of Americans (74%) believe accounting courses should be designated as a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education program. The AICPA is advocating for legislation to establish the accounting profession as a STEM career pathway and to support long-standing efforts to bring awareness of the opportunities accounting can provide to young people who are considering their future careers.
The Accounting STEM Pursuit Act, which was introduced in both chambers during the last Congress, would enable federal K-12 funding to support accounting education for students from all backgrounds. If enacted, these bills would allow educators to secure STEM funding to teach foundational accounting skills, introducing young students to accounting as a viable career and fostering a workforce that reflects the communities the profession serves.
The AICPA survey found that more than half (54%) of Americans ages 18-34, and 59% of Americans ages 35-44 believe that students would be more likely to enter an accounting education program if it were designated as a STEM education program.
Fortune published this: John Summit went from working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in a $65,000 job to a multimillionaire DJ—‘I make more in one show than I would in my entire accounting career’
It wasn’t too long ago that John Summit, 31, (born John Schuster) was commuting home from a grueling day of accounting work in Chicago and chugging cold brews to find the energy to make music. Working at a Big Four firm like Ernst & Young meant some days ended up being nine-to-nine instead of nine-to-five.
At the time, it was numbers by day, music by night. His day job paid a $65,000 annual salary, but his real passion was making music. Whether in his college dorm or parents’ basement, music became a creative escape that would later become the launch pad for his emerging empire.
After quitting Ernst & Young for its grueling 12 hour days, another accounting job promised better hours—so he pivoted. It only lasted a couple months before he was let go, after showing up to work with bloodshot eyes from a weekend DJ shift playing underground sets from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Turns out his co-workers were more focused on crunching numbers than spinning tracks.
It might be too early for this, hit play at your own risk.
This comment lol.
Remember the AI startup Builder.ai? Some things are happening there:
US investigators are advancing a criminal probe into Builder.ai, demanding a former executive’s communications with the firm’s UK auditor and with others involved in the financial reporting for the artificial intelligence startup ahead of its June bankruptcy.
Federal Bureau of Investigation officers served former Builder.ai Chief Financial Officer Andres Elizondo at a Dallas area airport in August with a subpoena, said people familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Prosecutors sought information related to alleged violations of laws relating to wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy, according to the subpoena reviewed by Bloomberg, without naming the exact target of the probe.
The US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan has been looking into Builder.ai’s financial practices and previously demanded the company turn over documents, Bloomberg News reported in May.
Earlier:
As you may have heard, the Louvre got robbed over the weekend. Apparently the French Court of Auditors warned this could happen in a report commissioned two years ago, reports El Mundo:
The security audit conducted by the Court of Auditors reveals the “defective protection” of the over 33,000 works exhibited at the Louvre and the “persistent delay” in updating security systems. The report highlights that 75% of the Richelieu wing of the museum and 60% of the Sully wing are not protected by surveillance systems. The audit also emphasizes how the “operational implementation” of security device renovations “appears uneven and generally very limited.” “The obsolescence cycle of the museum’s technical equipment has accelerated more significantly than the pace of investment made by the institution to address it,” concludes the report.
A 38-year-old accountant from greater Atlanta allegedly sped past a home in North Carolina with a Trump flag attached to a bus in the yard, slammed on his brakes, hopped out to forcibly remove it, then started blasting when the homeowner came out with a rifle and fired two warning shots. DM is just now getting around to it:
Benjamin Michael Campbell is charged with firing shots at the home of Mark Thomas, 62, in Nantahala Gorge, North Carolina, on September 6.
Thomas, who owns a river rafting business in the picturesque area, caught the moment on camera the gunman was seen raising a pistol from the sunroof of his vehicle and firing several rounds.
Records seen by the Daily Mail indicate that Campbell is a married accountant living in Cobb County, Atlanta, which is around 160 miles south of Thomas’s home. It’s unclear what Campbell was doing in the rural area.
A CPAVerify lookup shows an active CPA license issued to a Benjamin Michael Campbell, active since 2012 and expiring at the end of this year.
Campbell has been charged with Class C felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, discharging a firearm with intent to incite fear, and willful and wanton injury to personal property.
In a more positive story out of North Carolina, a teacher uses Monopoly to get her kids interested in accounting:
If students learn more when they are having fun then these students in Jolene Alley’s accounting class at Southern Alamance High School must be learning a lot.
Their smiles and laughter say they are having fun with a friendly game of Monopoly. But there’s an accounting twist. The students have to keep a record of all their transactions just like an accountant would do.
“Up to this date in the first five weeks that we’ve been doing accounting, they’ve been on the computers, Alley says. “So pretty much it’s plug in and then see what your mistakes are and go back and make corrections. And it takes practice. ”
But with this game, it’s all pencil and paper.
“When they’re actually doing this on paper with a general journal and pencil and eraser, they can actually see, I think it uses a different part of their brain, that they can actually see the debits and credits and how everything lines up and how everything has to balance,” says Alley.
Big fan of pencil and paper over here. Really. Call me washed, idc.
The CFO of a bargain retailer across the pond has stepped down due to an accounting error:
The UK-listed company [B&M] on Monday said about £7mn of freight costs had not been “correctly recognised” following an update to its operating systems earlier this year.
As a result, B&M has cut its guidance for adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the 2026 financial year to between £470mn and £520mn, down from an earlier estimate of £510mn-£560mn.
And that’s a wrap for this news brief. If you have a tip, have seen an article you think we’d appreciate, or just feel the need to trauma dump on someone who will pretend to care, email or text any time. Have a great week, little pumpkins.