• Obama likely in no rush to nod on Bernanke’s fate Apparently this is the one thing that doesn’t need addressed immediately. [Reuters]
• U.S. Payroll Losses Slow, Unemployment Rate Declines 247,000 lost, 9.4%. Is that green shoots? [Bloomberg]
• France targets bankers’ bonuses – Soon, pols are going to have to find something else to pander to the masses with. [BBC]
• AIG Posts $1.82 Billion Profit, First Since 2007 – You can just sign that over to the us, thankyouverymuch. – U.S. Taxpayer [Bloomberg]
• Willis Group Sued by Stanford’s Venezuelan Clients – Sure, why not? [DealBook]
• Judge Approves Lawyer Fees in Madoff Liquidation – In other news, Madoff victims are still pissed. [DealBook]
Review Comments | 08.06.09
• North Korea Wanted Only Bill Clinton for Mission to Free Women – And Bill Clinton wanted the mission to free women. Worked out great. [Bloomberg]
• Senate Votes 68-31 to Confirm Sotomayor – Senator Stuart Smalley Al Franken presided over the vote, which Bill O’Reilly will hate, which we, in turn, will love. [ATL]
• AIG’s Hank Greenberg Pays $15 Million to End SEC Suit [Bloomberg]
• Unemployed Man Getting Really Good At Unemployment Not surprisingly, it’s pretty easy. [The Onion]
Firm Watch: BDO
All right, so this is it for our firm watch. We realize loading three firms into one day wasn’t such a good idea but we procrastinated out of habit.
We wrap up with BDO Seidman, who some of you probably consider to be TTT-1 but whatevs.
See BDO’s list, after the jump
• Lawsuits – BDO International Global Cooperation hit the lottery when a jury in South Florida bought the wedding planner defense in the Banco Espirito lawsuit. That left the U.S. firm to deal with the $520 million verdict in the original case. The U.S. firm just reported revenue results of $622 million. No word on how that will reconcile.
• Madoff Exposure – Listed as a defendant in seven lawsuits.
• Overtime Lawsuits – List as a defendant in one lawsuit.
• Layoffs, etc. – Same dealio as GT. We’ve only heard of minor layoffs but as high as 200 in the UK. Get us up to speed if you’ve got details.
• Miscellaneous – Global CEO Jeremy Newman has a blog that is frequently TLDR. The U.S. CEO has been compared to a special version of Ricardo Montalban and a former partner had to recently give up his boat.
Finally. That catches you up on all the firms that you’ll see regularly around here. They all seem doomed but also have the tenacity of cockroaches. You’ll see our totally unfair, unrealistic ranking tomorrow with some updates that we’ve gotten throughout the week. Before then, continue to send us your tips to tips@goingconcern.com.
PCAOB Reminds Us That They Have Their Own Oversight Board
God bless the PCAOB. Back in 2004, they created the Office of Internal Oversight and Performance Assurance (IOPA) just in case those smartass Peekaboo inspectors were getting a little too self-righteous all over your audit.
Apparently, the fact that the PCAOB has its own internal oversight board is supposed to make all of you auditors comfortable. That assumes you knew about it in the first place. We sure didn’t know this internal affairs-esque board-within-a-board existed.
Maybe realizing that the IOPA had virtually no identity among anyone, anywhere, the PCAOB did everyone the courtesy of updating its “About” section of its website today reminding us of the internal watchdog. So whether you’ve got a legitimate complaint or you’re just seeking sweet, sweet revenge on that know-it-all dick questioning your tickmarks and indexing method, now you can give the PCAOB a taste of their own medicine.
Internal Oversight [PCAOBUS.org]
Firm Watch: Grant Thornton
Now that we’ve dispensed with the Big 4 on our Firm Watch, we’ll throw in the two major second next non-Big 4 firms to demonstrate our willingness to spread the love hate coverage.
Get acquainted with GTTT, after the jump
• Lawsuits – The lawsuits worth mentioning for GT are Parmalat and Refco. While Deloitte was able to get the suit tossed, GT wasn’t so lucky. Investors in the never-go-bad dairy company are allowed to proceed with their lawsuit which will guarantee that this case continues on to the end of time. As far as Refco goes, well, we’ll be damned if we can find anything that is even remotely recent as it relates to GT. Help us out if you can.
• Madoff Exposure – G to the T’s UK office is running down assets across the pond. That unenviable task could almost qualify the firm for sainthood.
• Overtime Lawsuits – Listed as defendants in two cases.
• Layoffs – This is where we need your help, GT-ers. As far as we can tell, not a lot of blood has been spilled at G to the T. If you’ve details on rumors on anything upcoming or layoffs that have gone down recently, let us know.
• Miscellaneous – GT’s partners in the UK have interns sign off on audit reports and the Midtown New York office as a diabolical address. Oh, and the lame attempt by their PR team to coin “Global 6 Accounting Organization” as the new tag for accounting firms.
There’s the study on passionate folks at GT. Get us caught up on stuff we’re missing at tips@goingconcern.com. We can’t imagine it’s that boring to work there.
Lock up the Booze, E&Y Interns in Orlando
We just picked up one of the few Tweets that has made it through today:

This type of event will likely lead to many things including international hookups, late night skinny dipping (and probably urinating) in the pool, and widespread drunkenness of epic proportions.
If you’re down in Orlando this weekend for this three day extravaganza, send us your stories of debauchery to tips@goingconcern.com. According to the website, the festivities are at Disney World, so don’t embarass your firm yourself and try to keep the nudity out of the view of children.
International Intern Leadership Conference [EY.com]
Rumor of the Day: All Big 4 Firms Freezing and/or Cutting Pay?
We’ve heard some rumors that all the firms are giving serious consideration to freezing pay this year and possibly pay cuts in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. This would follow the Radio Station rumors that we mentioned last week.
Top performers and promotees, determined by God knows how, may be getting bumps but we haven’t heard anything definite. If you’ve got some deets or just more rumors, shoot us an email to tips@goingconcern.com.
Firm Watch: Deloitte
The last of the Big 4 Horsemen of the Bean Counter Apocalypse is Big D-period. Catch up on the rest of the usual suspects: Radio Station, P. Dubya, and E&Y to get the gist of this little exercise.
Deloitte’s got a pretty similar list as the rest of the firms but with a couple twists so let’s get down to brass tacks:
Get the details, after the jump
• Losing Clients – We’ve heard that firms are low-balling their RFP’s so it’s no surprise that some clients are switching but Deloitte seems to have had worse luck than others. UAL, Heelys (for the kids), Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Washington Mutual have all disappeared from D-period.
• Lawsuits – Believe it or not, the Parmalat debacle is not a done deal, as some lawsuits against the US and Internationalfirms are still out there as a judge ruled in January that the agent/agency issue was worth a closer look.
• Madoff Exposure – All week we’ve been referring you to the list of Feeder Fund Lawsuits over at D&O Diary. In a small water into wine moment, Deloitte does not appear on the list once. Nice bullet dodge Big D.
• Overtime Lawsuits in California – Deloitte is listed as the defendant in three of the cases.
• Layoffs, performance reviews, etc. – So, as we saw yesterday, this is where Deloitte’s sitch gets, pret-tay, pret-tay, pret-tay ugly. Layoffs were reported in both December and March nationwide. The performance stealth cuts are common here too and more may occur. All this is going on while an out-going CEO is talking to the press about how bad things have been in the last five years and the UK CEO is having Scrooge McDuck pool parties.
• Miscellaneous – The worst drug dealers in the world used to work for Big D.
So that does it for Deloitte, God bless ’em. And that does it for the Final Big 4. We’ll throw in GT and BDO in for good measure but if you want to throw some more jabs at the big boys, email us at tips@goingconcern.com. You’ve got until around high noon tomorrow before we’ll start coming up with our completely unfair and unscientific ranking.
Your New Career: Actor
Are you a young bean counter totally apathetic towards your career choice? Do you wake up thinking that if you have to look at spreadsheets for one more day you might just go mental on everyone in your office?
Well, the gods are shining on you today:
See the role, after the jump
Casting for the short thriller “A Paper Trail”
A group of friends finds a large sum of money hidden away in the woods. Unfortunately the owners come looking for what is theirs.
Casting for the male and female leads:
Matt – A competent accountant who decides that the best course of action will be to keep the money.
Stacey – She is nervous and has her reservations about taking the money.
Send an email with your headshot and resume. We will be casting on Sunday, August 9th, from 12-5 @ The Rosendale Youth Center!
Sorry lady number crunchers, unless you’re capable of summoning your inner-Hillary Swank, this one is for the gents.
So dudes, basically no acting involved. Show up, looking however you normally look and act how you normally act: Competent. Best course of action is to keep the money. Completely natch.
Not a thespian? Then tell us what you’d rather be doing than pulling sample selections or researching 1031 exchanges. SHUDDER. Anything has gotta beat the hell out of what you’re working on right this second.
Casting for a Short Thriller film (Rosendale) [Craigslist.org]
Your Jailed Accountants Update
The two P. Dubs-India partners rotting in a prison because, according to them, we’re duped by the geniuses at Satyam, got their vacation extended to August 19, according to The Business Standard. We have no idea if India’s prisons are the PMITA variety but at the very least, it’s crazy-ass hot.
Hyd court extends Raju’s remand till August 19 [The Business Standard]
Preliminary Analytics | 08.06.09
• Businesses Learn To Make Do With Fewer Workers – Sound familiar to anyone? [NPR]
• Judge raps $33m bank bonus fine – “A US judge has refused to approve a $33m (£19m) fine that Bank of America agreed to pay to settle charges that it misled investors about bonuses.” [BBC]
• SEC Asks to Self Fund to Allow for Better Enforcement – OH, that was the problem. [naked capitalsm]
• AIG Breakup Is Fee Bonanza – Bankers, lawyers, accountants. Everybody’s happy. Oh wait. Taxpayers. [WSJ]
• Madoff Victims Said to Start Getting Tax Refunds – Anger will only subside briefly. [DealBook]
Review Comments | 08.05.09
• Who Will Defend R. Allen Stanford? – There’s always…hmmm, anyone? [DealBook]
• Judge Orders Sale of Creation Science Theme Park to Pay Evangelist’s Tax Debts Agnostic judge probably. [TaxProf Blog]
• The alleged grifter who duped corporate giants – The fairer sex, taking it to the man. [Fortune]
• A Battle of Goliaths: Michael Bloomberg and His Gun Control Group Take on the NRA – At least this is a fair match. [Washington Post]
• Huron’s ex-CEO cashed out $8.3 million since last July But it wasn’t about the money. [Greg Burns/Chicago Tribune]
• IRS Commissioner Joins alliantgroup [Press Release]
• Bernard Madoff and the Solo Auditor Red Flag [Ross D. Fuerman]
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