The KPMG Director who rammed about £500,000 expenses back to the firm was sentenced to four years in jail in London today.
Andrew Wetherall, claimed that “when his wife’s previous partner tried to reduce maintenance payments, he was worried her lifestyle would suffer. Her spending sprees came to about £15,000 a month, the court was told. The court heard he was desperate to avoid marital tension or a divorce so made bogus expense claims.”
Four years in jail over marital tension or divorce? This was the dude’s second marriage. That’s about average these days so we’re not sure about his decision making ability.
Is this true love, stupidity, or enjoying a loose expense reimbursement policy at play here? Discuss.
Finance director jailed for fraud [BBC]
- Friday Footnotes: KPMG Staff Not Happy With How Layoffs Were Handled; SEC Says PCAOB Should Toss Independence Rules | 5.8.26
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What if Everyone Sued Their Employer for Being Made to Feel Like a Prostitute?
In, if first you don’t succeed suing your former employer news, a London Employement Tribunal opened yesterday for a former PwC forensic accountant who is suing P. Dubs for £40 million after the firm was exonerated in a similar suit she brought in 2007.
More, after the jump
Mihaela Popa claims that while she worked at PwC in London, the following allegedly happened:
• She was made to feel like a prostitute
• She was told ‘Eastern European women are whores’
• She was known as ‘Mihaela and porn’
• During the initial swine flu hoopla, she was told ‘this Romanian bird will have a slow death’
• She also claims that some co-workers thought she was a Communist spy
For all this alleged name calling and accused espionage, Ms. Popa is suing PwC for “£40 million in compensation for loss of earnings and hurt feelings”. That tidy sum wasn’t just pulled out of the air, mind you. This is because she “previously claimed that she was given promises she could become a £750,000-a-year partner.”
Since being made to feel like a whore is common at accounting firms many of you have referred to yourselves as such, we’re not sure that “being made to feel like a prostitute” really flies with us.
As for the Communist spy charge, we can’t barely recall a time when this actually mattered, since the Cold War effectively ended 20 years ago.
P. Dubs “strenuously denies the allegations” but we could probably all agree that there are a few bigots working at PwC in London. On the other hand, this could said about any firm, in any city in the world.
Discuss your thoughts on the case, and if you feel more like a whore at your job then Ms. Popa, in the comments.
Accountant claims £40m from PricewaterhouseCoopers [Telegraph via Accountancy Age]
Last Call for Procrastination Station | 09.15.09
Here we are at last call for corporate and partnership tax returns. You’ve got until midnight eastern time tonight to get the stragglers filed (or maybe you just spend the entire day postmarking things in advance).
This is usually about the time in the morning where a manager or partner shows up in your office with shoebox filled with receipts and a hand-written set of financial statements for a very important client.
While this scenario seems like the type of nightmare that would send most people running into oncoming traffic, we assure you that it does happen.
So if you’re a fighting fires on filing day, or you’re a veteran of the procrastination station and have tales that are worthy of campfire ghost stories, discuss your experiences in the comments.
As for the rest of you who finished your clients up yesterday, you’re probably not even at work, so sober up and get into the office, tomorrow is the holiday.
Preliminary Analytics | 09.15.09
• Citigroup Explores Bid to Pare U.S. Stake – “Citigroup officials said they planned to raise outside capital in order to repay the outstanding bailout funds. Treasury officials responded to Citi that they didn’t object to the company paying back Washington as long as Citi first raised offsetting capital” In other words, everyone calm down. It’s more like Citi actually got the stones to call up the Treasury. At this point, Treasury is still a little grossed out. [WSJ]
• Bank of America Ruling Leaves SEC With Few Options for Pursuit – Judge Rakoff: ‘the proposed consent judgment was a contrivance designed to provide the SEC with the façade of enforcement and the management of the bank with a quick resolution of an embarrassing inquiry.’ So much for winning anybody’s respect Schapester. [Bloomberg]
• A Tough Crowd on Wall Street – Shockingly, very few lined up to congratulate the President on the speech, which probably caught him off guard a little bit. [NYT]
• How accounting changes can create a world of investment banks – So, accountants will be blamed for the next crisis too? Awesome. [FT Alphaville]
Review Comments | 09.14.09
• On Wall St., Obama Pushes Stricter Finance Rules – Nothing like getting lectured in your own bank yard. [NYT]
• Judge Rejects SEC-BofA Settlement Over Merrill – “The AG’s office has also questioned whether Bank of America failed to tell shareholders about its consideration of backing out of the deal and mounting write-downs at one of Merrill’s mortgage lending subsidiaries.” He might be calling Ken Lewis a liar, we’re not sure. [NPR]
• Tax evaders rush to beat amnesty deadline – September 23rd bitches. Repent! [Reuters]
• Update: Do NOT Bid On Lenny Dykstra’s Balls – Fans of Nails, proceed cautiously. [DB]
Is the Party Over?
In these frugal times, you may have noticed the lessening frequency of booze fueled get-togethers at your firm. Now that may new associates are/will be joining the number crunching fray soon we’re wondering if we’ll see a possible uptick in social events.
Knocking back some cocktails doesn’t always have the wide appeal in today’s diverse workforce (regardless of what the stats say) but often these fall events are well attended by boozehounds and non-boozehounds alike.
Discuss in the comments the current trend of socializing at your office. Is the culture at your firm or office drying out? Will it get amped up for the incoming staff? One would think that could be impossible judging by activity during this time of year in the past but since layoffs appear to be a bodily function for the firms these days, your celebrations may be occurring with less enthusiasm.
Does Grant Thornton’s Business Optimism Index Mean Anything?
Grant Thornton, a global six accounting organization, puts out a quarterly optimism index that is “a quarterly confidence measure of U.S. business leaders”.
That sounds very nice and the index is now up to 2007 levels, according to a firm press release. The press release also states that “58 percent of respondents believe that the economy will come out of recession by the first half of 2010, but only 26 percent plan to increase hiring.”
Call us cynics but this definitely has the whole underpants theory written all over it. Poll some executives with some vaguely worded questions and we are to believe that recovery will occur by virtue of a secret plan that has yet to be developed? Leave the wild speculation to us GT.
Talking Pigs Are Obviously More Effective Than Humans in Communicating the Importance of Saving Money
The AICPA has been running the “Feed the Pig” campaign for some time and, until now, we’ve neglected to tell you how freaked out we are by a talking pig in a suit.
It what appears to be some kind of capitalist version of one of the pigs from Animal Farm, the AICPA has decided that getting through to the American People will take a very serious and well thought strategy. So obviously the strategy ended up being a well dressed and articulate pig.
More advertising genius, after the jump
When you think about it, this is most certainly the best approach, regardless of the biological manufacturing debate. A message from a human in a suit will obviously not appeal to anyone and a non-talking piggy bank will not get the point across clearly enough. Talking horses are nothing new and the thought of talking chickens was just too ridiculous.
So talking pigs it is. However, If we were the AICPA, we’d be a little concerned about spread of the H1N1 which could inadvertently confuse some into thinking that if you save money you will end up with swine flu.
If you’ve got your own ideas about how best to communicate to the masses in this campaign, submit them in the comments.
Is KPMG’s Song Writing Team the Same as E&Y’s?
No doubt that you remember E&Y’s Grammy-worthy attempt at a theme song/torture method from last week.

We have now discovered that KPMG also thought this was worthy of the firm’s resources. The only problem we find is that the songs sound oddly similar in melody, atrocious use of harmony, etc. This kind of artistic double-agentry between the firms only reaffirms are suspicions about the firms working together in some sort of oligopolic conspiracy of which the purpose is, we haven’t figured out, except maybe to perpetuate the use of Excel.
After the jump, we’ve provided links to both songs here so that you can provide your expert analysis on which firm has the best song. And by best, we obviously mean drives you to agony similar to Alex DeLarge/Beethoven-esque levels. In addition, feel free to provide your favorite lyrics in the comments.
Deloitte Wants to Help You Find a Job. In Another Country
If you recently find yourself unemployed and either you were here on a visa or you’ve had enough of the old US of A, Deloitte is here to help you this week. On Wednesday, the big D is providing a 90 minute webcast for its alumni who are looking for work internationally.
Since Deloitte is a big shot accounting firm that is always on top of this whole economic sitch, they’re providing a webcast for you former Green-dots to figure out how to go to another country ’cause your chances of getting a job States-side are pretty much zilch.
Get details, after the jump
As colleagues for life, our alumni are an important part of the Deloitte culture. You have made significant contributions to Deloitte over the years, and in similar fashion we are committed to continually supporting your journey as you increase your personal market value.
Join us on Wednesday, September 16, 12:00 p.m. EDT for expert advice and tips from members of the Deloitte Global Talent Acquisition and Mobility team…Located in London and Amsterdam, our presenters have their thumb on the pulse of the international job search and will examine ways to navigate a marketplace job search outside of the U.S. Topics covered will include:
• What parts of the world are hiring right now
• How to market yourself for international jobs
• How to maximize your chances of getting a job outside the US
• How to prepare yourself for job interviews outside the US
• How to integrate if you do relocate
• How to negotiate an offer outside the US
Nevermind the tricky part about how the hell you get to Johannesburg once you’ve landed the new gig. That’s all on you.
Don’t Raise Those Taxes Just Yet, Timmy!
Editor’s note: Adrienne Gonzalez is founder and managing editor of Jr Deputy Accountant as well as regular contributor to leading financial/investment sites like Seeking Alpha and GoldmanSachs666. You see all of her posts for GC by going here. By day, she teaches unlicensed accountants to pass the CPA exam es in her copious amounts of freetime in the evening is really none of your business. Follow her adventures in Fedbashing and CPA-wrangling on Twitter @adrigonzo but please don’t show up unannounced at her San Francisco office as she’s got a mean streak. Her favorite FASB is 166.
I don’t know about you guys but when I’m trying to avoid spilling the beans, I’ll skirt around the issue as much as possible. God forbid my words come back to haunt me later, it’s so much easier to be as vague as possible.
Turbo Tim Geithner obviously subscribes to this method as well. Skirting around the issue of a tax increase? Our Treasury Secretary has that little song and dance down.
More after the jump
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview aired Sunday that the administration will do “what’s necessary” to revive the economy, and didn’t rule out new taxes as a means to do so.
“We’re going to have to look at – we’re going to have to do what’s necessary,” Geithner told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, host of “This Week.”
“Remember the critical thing is people understand that when we have recovery established, led by the private sector, then we have to bring these deficits down very dramatically. We have to bring them down to a level where the amount we’re borrowing from the world is stable at a reasonable level. And that’s going to require some very hard choices. And we’re going to have to do that in a way that does not add unfairly to the burdens that the average American already faces.”
Well what the hell is that supposed to mean? Sounds like a tax increase to me. With our Chinese credit card already cut and record-blowing amounts of Treasury auctions flopping week after week, one can only wonder where we’re going to be forced to make those “hard choices” Geithner is talking about.
Well instead of an across the board tax increase, we have some other ideas for raising the United States’ revenue. Hope you’re listening, Timmy!
• Obama Cabinet bikini car wash on Pennsylvania Ave. – Listen, no one wants to see Larry Summers in a bikini, so maybe the fundraising will come from paying him to keep his clothes on.
• White House yard sale -Taking a cue from California, the White House could put up all those black Secret Service helicopters up for a deep, deep discount. I’m sure they could pull at least $20 a pop for cardboard cutouts of Bill Clinton that have been gathering dust in the basement
• Rent out Ben Bernanke’s industrial strength money printing machine by the hour – Listen, we already know the thing works, why not rent it out to other nations engaged in quantitative easing? I’d say rent it out to Zimbabwe but they might not be able to cover the bill
• FOMC cage match fights at Fedquarters – We’ve all heard about dissent at FOMC meetings but what if we kill two birds with one stone – bring new transparency to the monetary policy-setting process AND pull in $75 a ticket to see “El Jefe” Jeff Lacker take on “Helicopter Ben” Bernanke in spandex and Luchador masks? I know I would pay to see that.
If you’ve got other ideas, we’re all ears. And if none of these work, I guess there’s always legalized prostitution. Though I’m not quite sure how well Tim “Eraserhead” Geithner would do as a man whore… Oh well. Tax increase here we come!
Morale Boost – What’s it Going to Take?
As we reach another major deadline tomorrow, the rumors about layoffs have begun again. After years of bragging about how the awesome job security we all enjoy, accountants now find themselves as expendable as any other profession.
While that might be a stretch, it certainly feels that way. Morale at most firms continues to be in free fall but the communication from your firms seems to indicate that leadership has their heads in the sand when it comes to how you’re all doing. Instead, the message seems to be “we need you to do more, with less” but we really, really appreciate it.
Try to feel better, after the jump
Since one firm has already decided a certain, end of the year party isn’t going to happen, anything short of setting up kissing booths filled with Kardashians or Clooney/Pitt types, isn’t going to get the remaining troops to rally for the upcoming busy season.
And judging by your discussions, the upcoming busy season might seem like something between the fourth and fifth circles of the Inferno. So in order to get some ideas thrown out there, discuss in the comments your suggestions so your firm can get your love again.
We’ve already suggested McGladrey & Pullen make better use of their relationship with Natalie Gulbis but we’re not holding our breath on that front.
