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Oops: Grant Thornton Lost an Audit Client Due to ‘Inadvertent Scope Creep’

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Ahhhh, independence. The albatross around the neck of the audit profession. Or maybe that's the PCAOB. Or maybe it's the technology. Fuck, I don't know. If you imagine all the giant birds shitting on auditors, ugh, that's a horrific thought.

Anyway, independence. Cenveo, Inc. filed an 8-K this week informing everyone that the company had to fire Grant Thornton as their independent auditor:

The Audit Committee dismissed GT as the Company’s registered public accounting firm, effective July 21, 2015, due to information received from GT that it was not independent solely as a result of inadvertent “scope creep” by an employee of GT in its work for the Company regarding a non-material tax matter. In particular, the GT employee appeared on behalf of the Company at an administrative hearing on the matter, took action on the matter without required authorization from the Company and otherwise acted in excess of actual authorization, thus impairing GT’s independence.

Okay, somebody in tax made an honest mistake regarding "a non-material tax matter," but INDEPENDENCE! You're fired. Independence fundamentalist identified.

But then again, maybe Cenveo wanted to dump GT and this was the perfect excuse. Maybe they have the most self-righteous audit committee ever assembled. Maybe the chief accounting officer and audit partner were having sex and, because the company didn't want to discourage the pursuit of true romance, they made this story up to avoid sensational headlines.

I don't know what happened. But the fact remains, auditor independence is a joke.

8-K [SEC via @AuditAnalytics]

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Unfounded Rumor of the Day: Grant Thornton About to Announce a ‘Big West Coast Deal’

Remember those GT/Moss Adams rumors from back in January? At the time, our post sent both firms calling for plumbers but we still mangaged to get a copy of an email from Moss Adams CEO Rick Anderson that denied the rumor in an email to the firm’s partners. Everything has been quiet since then mostly because…well, it’s busy season. Granted, firm leaders like Stephen Chipman and Rick Anderson aren’t thigh-deep in spreadsheets like most of you so the fact it’s entirely plausible that while you’re all distracted, TPTB have been courting each other.

We received this brief note from a tipster yesterday:

Rumor is [Grant Thornton] [is] about to announce big west coast deal.


Our source originally speculated that a tax/valuation/consulting boutique was the target because of an old Andersen connection but then told us that the latest word from the west coast is that Moss Adams is back in the picture. In our original post, we went over the reasons for and against the GranMoss merger and frankly it still could go either way (we’re leaning “no” at this point). That said, Grant Thornton has been on a buying spree, most recently picking up some attest services from the LECG Corp. fire sale, so a merger of some kind wouldn’t be a surprise but WHO?? We’re listening to any and all well-founded or crackpot theories.

Moss Adams has declined to comment on the rumor thus far and Grant Thornton did not return an email requesting comment.

UPDATE: This just in from a Grant Thornton tipster:

While I have no actual basis for substantiating this, we have a Moss Adams wireless signal in our office in the central region. There is no Moss Adams office in our building, or even out state, its been there since about January when the rumors first popped up. I just thought it was interesting. I have no insight into any of this, I’m just a lowly peon staff…

Perhaps there’s an explanation for this but I’m no expert on the wireless signals and whatnot so I’ll leave it to you to reason this out.

Chair dismissed employee. Quitting job worker, box of fired businessman leaving office resign job dismiss work person unemployment layoff people lost employment vector illustration

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Grant Thornton Survey: Celebrities’ Acceptance of Infidelity Carrying Over to the Plebs

In Northern Ireland, anyway. Yes, if you’re moseying around Belfast and catch your spouse in an intimate embrace with someone who isn’t you, your heart may be broken but that doesn’t mean you’re going to divorce their cheating ass. Why, you ask? Well, you see, celebrities, being the model global citizens that they are, seem understand that marriage doesn’t really mean that you can’t have sex with other people, even if you haven’t expressed a desire to do so and regular Joes and Janes are starting to think that should be their attitude as well.

The UK Press Association reports, “one of the reasons for the shift may be the growing number of high profile celebrities that have publicly accepted their partner being unfaithful, according to consultancy and accountancy firm Grant Thornton, which carried out the matrimonial survey.” Yes Grant Thornton, fresh off their new ad campaign, is finding time to weigh in on marriage trends, although they readily admit they’re really just taking a stab at this:

Sally Longworth, partner at Grant Thornton’s Forensic and Investigations services practice, said: “The shift in the reasons for divorce is difficult to explain, although one potential influence could be the rise in the number of celebrities that are very publicly accepting their spouse’s infidelities.

Seems that GT is hard up for work in N.I.

[via UKPA]