Plus, Deloitte gets dinged over Autonomy, divisive tax policy, Donald Trump is wrong about something, and more.

Plus, a sexy tax avoidance product, EY picks up some lawyers, a literary agency accountant cooked some books, and more.

The financial scandal no one is talking about [The Guardian] This is a nice long read to ease you back from the holiday weekend. “The financial scandal” is, of course, the Big 4, and their dominance as auditors of the world’s largest companies, among other things: They are the only players large enough to check […]

Plus, Lynne Doughtie’s favorite movies, Samsonite’s troubles, stolen crypto, and bad mussels.

Plus, the IRS warns states about SALT workarounds, another disturbing sexual misconduct case, dealing with allergies, and more.

Plus, the shakeup at the PCAOB continues, General Electric wants to sell its insurance unit, POTUS promises more tax cuts, and more.

Do Big Four Auditors Unfairly Raise Fees? [CFO] A new study from Aloke Ghosh and Subprasiri Siriviriyakul of CUNY Baruch suggests that Big 4 firms oppose term limits not because they believe “clients benefit from superior audit quality rendered over longer audit firm tenure,” but rather the firms can charge a “tenure-linked fee premium” and […]

The ‘big four’ auditors have life far too easy [FT] Jonathan Ford writes that “There is a public interest in making life less comfortable for the masters of the auditing universe,” also noting that “Britain could catalyse wider action by leading the way [by forcing a break up.]” The Big Four: Break-Up or Audit Only? […]

Big Four accountancy firms plan for forced break-up [FT] As the drums for breaking up the Big 4 in favor of audit-only firms beat louder, it’s been interesting to read about the contingency plans they’ve been exploring behind the scenes: PwC said it had “a documented business continuity plan covering a range of scenarios that […]

KPMG chair calls Big Four an ‘oligopoly’ after Carillion collapse [FN] As usual, the Brits are little more forthright about their failings than their American counterparts. Where KPMG US CEO Lynne Douthie wrote vaguely about the alleged conspiracy of former partners, but beamed about how awesome the firm is, Bill Micheal, the UK chairman, admitted […]

Key findings from the MPs’ report into Carillion’s collapse [The Guardian] Two parliamentary committees spread the blame around for the collapse of the British construction company, with the Big 4 getting its fair share. The report called KPMG, Carillion’s auditor, “complicit” for “complacently signing off its directors’ increasingly fantastical figures.” Deloitte, the internal auditor, “too […]

Top GOP donors close wallets over tax law [CNN] Wealthy hedge fund guys like Paul Singer, Ken Griffin, and Dan Loeb are miffed about “favored treatment for corporations under the law” and are withholding donations to Republican candidates and the party’s national committee as punishment. Collectively, the boycotters donated $50 million during the 2016 election […]

No, I do not want to go to the stupid prom with you. Xerox Drops Fujifilm Merger Plan, Strikes a Deal With Activists [WSJ] The saga of Xerox and Fujifilm has taken a new turn, as the company has abandoned its merger plans to work with and activist investors Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason. How […]

PwC Whistleblower Alleges Fraud in Audits of Silicon Valley Companies [POGO] The Project on Government Oversight has a nice scoop on the tale of Mauro Botta, a former PwC senior manager who after spending a dozen years in the firm’s Silicon Valley office, became a whistleblower. Botta told the Securities and Exchange Commission in a […]

Crowe drops Horwath from its brand [AT] Over 200 member firms around the world will now be known as “Crowe,” and I suppose that collectively, they will be known as “a murder of Crowes” which is cool-sounding but perhaps a little too terrifying to actually put into practice. Still, just for fun, let’s try working […]

Think There’s a Talent Shortage Now? Just Wait [CFO] Is there a worrier near you? If so, forward them this Korn Ferry study that has enough doom and gloom to keep them busy for the next dozen years: By 2030 — no more than a couple of economic cycles away, in all likelihood — the […]

This Is Why Tesla Should Answer Boring Questions [Bloomberg] Bloomberg columnist Liam Denning expressed some surprised as to how Tesla’s gross margin improved despite sales going down in the first quarter. It involved some accounting sleight of hand: One big factor was a change in how Tesla accounts for vehicles it leases. Whereas previously many […]

Buffett Accounting ‘Nightmare’ Fuels First Loss in Nine Years [Bloomberg] Although new rules that require unrealized gains and losses from equity investments “will produce some truly wild and capricious swings in our GAAP bottom line,” Uncle Warren recommends looking at Berkshire Hathaway’s operating income as “a better barometer” of the company’s performance. It increased 49 […]

SEC chief accountant warns against mischief in non-GAAP reporting [AT] On a panel at Baruch College’s Financial Reporting Conference, SEC Chief Accountant Wesley Bricker mentioned that there can be a “mischievous quality to non-GAAP reporting,” and now I can only imagine CFOs with toothy grins and little top hats. Also notable were comments from Kyle […]

Ernst & Young settles sex-harassment suit from partner [NYP] Jessica Casucci has agreed to leave the firm as part of a settlement over the allegations in a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Council last month. The Post reports that John Martinkat, the partner at the center of the allegations, has been fired from […]

Ex-Autonomy CFO Convicted of Massive Fraud [CFO] Sushovan Hussain used his “special skills in accounting” for good instead of evil, essentially duping HP into buying Autonomy. [P]rosecutors presented evidence that Hussain used backdated contracts, round-trips, channel stuffing, and other forms of accounting fraud to inflate Autonomy’s publicly-reported revenues by as much as 14.6% in 2009, […]

New PCAOB Rule Sways Investor Decisions [CFO] A recent study found that partner naming “has a considerable impact on investment decisions” perhaps even more so than anyone expected. The study found that a contagion effect — a phenomenon where negatives traits of a company extend to others like, say, an audit firm partner — could […]

Programming note: ANR will be off tomorrow, returning Monday. KPMG Gets Cold Shoulder From GE Shareholders [WSJ] Michael Rapoport reports, “Only 64.9% of GE shareholders voted to ratify KPMG as GE’s auditor.” One governance expert called it an “extraordinary” level of opposition, but the fact remains: KPMG will be GE’s auditor for another year: Its […]

Apple Takes a Step on Payment of Back Taxes to Ireland [WSJ] The company “completed an agreement” to put $16 billion into an escrow account to comply with an order from the European Commission. Ireland’s finance minister still disagrees with the ruling, but said, “as committed members of the European Union, Ireland is intent on […]

KPMG faces shareholder protests over GE and Wells Fargo audits [FT] Both GE and Wells Fargo hold their shareholder meetings this week, so we’ll see if investors heed the call of proxy advisors to dump KPMG. The firm and its predecessors have audited Wells Fargo since 1931 and GE since 1909, so chances for a […]

Zelle, the Banks’ Answer to Venmo, Proves Vulnerable to Fraud [NYT] I don’t know if “vulnerable” quite lives up to the severity of some these cases: “I know of one bank that was experiencing a 90 percent fraud rate on Zelle transactions, which is insane,” said Genevieve Gimbert, a partner in PwC’s financial crimes unit. […]

Audit Approved of Facebook Policies, Even After Cambridge Analytica Leak [NYT] That audit was performed by none other than PwC, and the firm submitted it to the Federal Trade Commission in early 2017. The report, like most audits performed by Big 4 firms, found the Facebook’s privacy protections were fine, and we now know that […]

Ernst & Young partner accuses firm of brushing off assault complaint [Reuters] Not too good, EY: In a complaint alleging discrimination and retaliation filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Jessica Casucci, a partner in Ernst & Young’s New York office, accused fellow partner John Martinkat of sexually assaulting her in front of two […]

I.R.S. Website Crashes on Tax Day as Millions Tried to File Returns [NYT] Yesterday was Tax Day and everyone’s worst nightmare came true: Millions of taxpayers who waited until Tuesday to file their 2017 tax returns and make payments through the Internal Revenue Service’s website were thwarted by a systemwide computer failure that advised last-minute […]

When Identity Thieves Hack Your Accountant [Krebs on Security] Brian Krebs reports on one CPA who shall remain nameless and the “malware gang” that targeted him for his clients’ info. The scam used a “keylogger” that records every keystroke and uploads screenshots from its victim’s machine. These day-long logs were uploaded to a site that […]

KPMG South Africa Audits Own Staff After Breaking Public Trust [Bloomberg] This kinda sounds like a joke, but: “[A]ll staff face background checks every two years to try improve public trust in the firm.” And the checks will be “done by an external, independent party.” Elsewhere: Microsoft auditing partner KPMG’s anti-piracy work in India after […]

Programming note: ANR will be off tomorrow and Friday, returning Monday. Investors Want More Transparency About YouTube’s Sales, Profit [WSJ] Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission “cited international accounting rules” when it asked Alphabet (fka Google) about breaking out YouTube’s financial performance, and now investors are crowing about it, too. Rules say that segments […]

How Did the Big Four Auditors Get $17 Billion in Revenue Growth? Not From Auditing [WSJ] Consulting and advisory work earned the Big 4 $56 billion last year, up from $39 billion five years earlier. Their auditing practices, on the other hand, have grown about $1 billion over the same period. As for the idea […]

Accounting watchdog to bite harder with 10 million pound fines [Reuters] The U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council will levy fines of 10 million pounds for “seriously poor audit work,” and that sound you hear is Big 4 risk managers stifling their laughter. U.S. Tax Executives Gear Up for Tax Reform’s “Butterfly Effect” [BDO] A BDO survey […]

Trump Veers From Tax Script to Blast Democrats on Immigration [NYT] Vindictive Stay Puft Marshmallow Boy Man and President of the United States, Donald Trump, was supposed to talk about the new tax law in West Virginia yesterday, but he decided “that would have been a little boring,” and ranted about immigration and repeated a […]

Get Ready for an Exciting Career as a Data Hygienist [Bloomberg] Justin Fox writes about what kind of jobs artificial intelligence will create, noting that even now, the work being done by lots of people is relatively new: “[A]bout half of Accenture’s 435,000 employees are doing work that didn’t exist as recently as five years […]

White House Turf Battle Threatens to Delay Tax Law Rollout [NYT] Last week, we mentioned the dance off between Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and this NYT story reports the latest details. Mulvaney believes “the I.R.S. should be subject to greater accountability,” and that OMB should be […]

Andersen Tax expands globally [AT] Having defeated its hilariously inept French rival over the Andersen name, Andersen Tax is now back to doing whatever it can to convince people that reviving the firm wasn’t a terrible idea. In the AT article, CEO Mark Vorsatz lists off all the countries he’s going to like some online […]

Ukrainian bank files $3bn claim against PwC for audit breaches [FT] Ukraine kicked PwC out last year over its failed audits of PrivatBank, and now the bank is suing the firm for “fail[ing] absolutely to identify the ongoing operation of the huge fraud.” KPMG in deep trouble in HK [China Accounting Blog] Paul Gillis goes […]

KPMG hit by Hong Kong High Court in $400 million China Medical fraud [Reuters] KPMG’s Hong Kong and mainland affiliate, KPMG Huazhen, have not been cooperating with a court order to produce its audit workpapers for defunct China Medical Technologies Inc. because it says doesn’t have them. Paul Gillis is quoted, saying that the HK […]

Tesla is just months from a total collapse, says hedge-fund manager [MW] John Thompson of Villas Capital Management doesn’t mince words: “This is one of the worst income statements I’ve ever seen and between the story and the financials, the financials will win out in this case.” Court rules ex-EY partner has right to accounting […]

Will Virginia’s New Confectionery Law Serve as a Model for States Looking to Fatten Up State Revenues? [BNA] Virginia is in the midst of implementing a new confectionery law that will cover booze-infused treats like spiked ice cream. It will all depend on how the Commonwealth defines “confectionery.” Trust Betrayed: Wives of White-Collar Criminals Tell […]

Accountants may benefit from Dodd-Frank changes [AT] The operative word being “may.” The Senate bill that passed earlier this month must be reconciled with a more aggressive House bill that passed last year, and “there are indications that may not happen.” The House bill went so far to roll back some provisions within Sarbanes-Oxley, and […]

Congress Has Had 26 Years to Address Online Sales Taxes. It Is About To Fail One More Time [TPC] When the Supreme Court first ruled in Quill v. North Dakota, “it practically begged Congress” to write new rules for taxation of remote sales, Howard Gleckman writes. Now that Congress has squandered the last two-and-a-half decades, […]

Should the Big Four accountancy firms be split up? [FT] Natasha Landell-Mills argues for, and Jim Peterson against, the forced spinning off of the Big 4 audit practices. Both make compelling points. Here’s Landell-Mills: “Lasting reform depends on auditors working for shareholders, not management. […] Lack of scrutiny creates space for conflicts of interest.” And […]

The investors duped by the Theranos fraud never asked for one important thing [MW] Francine McKenna reports that that thing was a set of audited financial statements. So, did they not get them because a) the “smart money” isn’t so smart or b) they don’t believe an auditor’s opinion is worth anything? PwC charges more […]

A Curveball From the New Tax Law: It Makes Baseball Trades Harder [NYT] Like-kind exchanges have gotten a rude awakening under the new tax law. With the exception of real estate, assets exchanged for similar assets are no longer exempt from tax, including, for example, athletes’ contracts. Sports executives are anxious for Treasury to explain […]

Why Middle-Aged Accountants Are Suing PwC Over Campus Recruiting [Bloomberg] It’s a little strange to me to sue a firm for focusing on-campus recruiting but “a study that found that younger applicants had a 538 percent better chance of getting jobs at PwC than those 40 and over” is more convincing. Theranos and Silicon Valley’s […]

PwC Has an Answer for the Blockchain: Audit It [WSJ] Does a decentralized ledger that verifies all kinds of transactions between hundreds of massive companies across thousands of computers need to be audited? PwC says, “Yes”: The Big Four accounting firm plans to unveil a new offering Friday that will provide an outside look at […]

SEC Charges Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes With Fraud [WSJ] Ms. Holmes and Theranos’s former president, the SEC said, perpetrated ” an elaborate, yearslong fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company’s technology, business and financial performance.” As part of the settlement, Holmes gives up control of the company she founded in […]

Tesla Treasurer and VP of Finance Leaves the Company [Bloomberg] Susan Repo, Tesla’s corporate treasurer and vice president of finance, is headed for the door, following Chief Accounting Officer Eric Branderiz, who left last week. Elsewhere: Elon Musk Wanted to Buy ‘The Onion,’ Now His Team’s Hiring Its Staffers for a Secret Project Inside the […]

Accounting watchdogs find ‘serious problems’ at 40% of audits [FT] The 52 audit regulators that make up the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators found “accounting lapses […] at two-fifths of the 918 audits” they examined last year. Among these, 41 percent “related to independence and ethics,” a figure one expert called “absurdly high.” Are […]

Tax Law Doesn’t Pay for Itself, Harvard Economists Find [WSJ] But we already knew that. The latest analysis from Professors Jason Furman and Robert Barro found that the TCJA would “boost U.S. gross domestic product by a total of about 0.4% by the end of a decade,” but cost $1.2 trillion. CFO Optimism Climbs to […]

KPMG Acts Globally But Keeps Scandals Local [WSJ] Michael Rapoport revisits the “global structure” of Big 4, which is really just a bunch of individual firms agreeing to put the same logo on their letterhead. Big 4 audit slayer Steven Thomas has it right: “The only time you hear ‘Well, we’re not all KPMG’ is […]

Trump Administration Backs Internet Taxes at U.S. Supreme Court [Bloomberg] SCOTUS will hear arguments in South Dakota v. Wayfair on April 17th. Where Corporate Taxes Are Poised to Rise Because of Tax Overhaul: States [WSJ] Richard Rubin reports on an Ernst & Young study that estimates state corporate-tax bases will increase 12 percent over the […]

Backstage with Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty and this year’s PwC accountant before Oscars best picture redo [LAT] Congratulations to PwC for not stealing the show this year: Once Beatty and Dunaway took the stage and began their presentation, one of the PwC accountants who replaced last year’s wrong-envelope accountants watched the monitor closely as “Shape […]

Most Companies Have No CFO Succession Plan [CFO] A Korn Ferry survey of 740 CFOs found that only 34 percent of them have a backup. The JUST Capital Rankings on Corporate Tax Reform [Just Capital via NYT] Nonprofit research firm Just Capital is collecting data on how corporations’ tax savings are being spent. Boeing, FedEx, […]

Suit Claims PWC’s Campus Recruiting Disadvantages Older Job Seekers [WSJ] We first mentioned this suit nearly two years ago and now a judge “is expected to decide whether to add the roughly 14,000 other older workers who didn’t get job offers from PwC to the case in the coming weeks.” The firm claims “its hiring […]

Study supports shorter auditor tenure [AT] A study by Zvi Singer of HEC Montreal and Jing Zhang of the University of Alabama in Huntsville found that “Auditors with shorter tenures were faster at discovering financial misreporting.” New accounting rules trim Tesla deficit and promise faster future revenues [MW] Francine McKenna reports that Tesla cut its […]

Georgia Republicans Vow to Kill Airline Tax-Cut Bill After Delta Ends N.R.A. Discount [NYT] If Delta sticks to its…guns…I guess you can assume they aren’t too worried about losing a $50 million sales tax exemption on jet fuel. SEC Commissioner Criticizes Idea of Curbing Shareholder Lawsuits [WSJ] Robert Jackson Jr. opposes forcing shareholders to resolve […]

Washington’s Fight Over Taxes Is Only Beginning [NYT] With so many provisions expiring, especially for individuals, and the GOP taking a quick and dirty approach to lawmaking, tax pros will have to stay on their toes for years. “This is anything but tax simplification,” KPMG’s vice chair of tax said. Treasury Official, Critical of Parts […]

MPs turn fire on KPMG and Deloitte partners over Carillion [FT] There was an auditor flogging in the U.K. with the usual theatrics: “I would not hire you to do an audit of the contents of my fridge, because when I read it, I would not know what was actually in my fridge or not,” […]

Supreme Court Curbs Protections for Whistleblowers [WSJ] If you or someone you know is thinking about blowing the whistle on some shady behavior, forget about reporting it internally; take your tip to the Securities and Exchange Commission if you want anti-retaliation protection under Dodd-Frank. Naturally, this came out of a case of accounting shenanigans: The […]

Honeywell CEO’s 2017 Pay Is 333 Times More Than Median Worker’s [Bloomberg] Honeywell is the first company to disclose its CEO-to-median employee ratio. Darius Adamczyk earned $16.5 million last year. Honeywell’s median employee was paid $50,296. West Virginia Ousts Film Tax Credit [BNA] The Mountain State shelled out $15 million in credits, but an audit […]

Tax Overhaul Gains Public Support, Buoying Republicans [NYT] A recent survey found that 51 percent of respondents support the law while 46 percent disapprove. The approval rating is up from a low point of 37 percent in December. Impacts of New Tax Law Still Fuzzy [CFO] Another survey found that many companies don’t really know […]

The Winter of CFOs’ Discontent? [CFO] CFO recently collected over 700 responses from its job search decision tree aimed at finance executives. And, good news — they’re miserable at their jobs just like the rest of you! “A slim majority of finance executives are unhappy in their jobs; about one-third don’t think their company’s strategy, […]

King & Spalding Adds New York Tax Partner from KPMG [TAL] Kevin Glenn, a 22-year vet of the House of Klynveld, is now complete: “Glenn said it was a ‘lifetime-long aspiration’ to become a law firm partner.” FWIW, he doesn’t expect the Big 4 to “make significant inroads” in the U.S. legal market. That sounds […]

Holding on to each other, because the markets crushed their dreams. Ed. note: ANR will be off tomorrow, returning Monday. For Millennial Investors, a Harsh Lesson in Market Gyrations [NYT] If you enjoy reading the lament of your millennial brethren, then look no further than this collection of nascent investors. “I feel like my formal […]

Treasury Secretary Tries to Ease Concern Over Stock Market Fall [WSJ] Steven Mnuchin says nothing is fucked here. “I think the fundamentals are quite strong. I don’t think these types of moves, given how much the market has rallied, do have financial stability concerns.” U.K. Fraud Trial of Ex-Tesco Executives Ended After Heart Attack [Bloomberg] […]

Investors Fear the Tax Cuts Will Work Too Well [NYT] Andrew Ross Sorkin writes that “Investors believe his policies to stoke growth are going to work so well that they will overheat the economy, and force the Federal Reserve to try to slow things down by raising interest rates faster than expected.” IPO Shortcuts Put […]

The face we’re all making because Chris Hemsworth, Danny McBride, and Paul Hogan won’t be in a movie together. Deal with PwC brings Petrobras investors’ recovery to $3 billion [Reuters] PwC’s Brazilian firm agreed to settle for $50 million. “We were keen to put this protracted legal matter behind us, and a settlement was the […]

If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week? [HBR] If you read that title and immediately thought, “I’ll bet this opens with an anecdote about an accounting firm,” then you win a prize: “I really became a robot,” a manager at an accounting firm explained. She and her colleagues worked […]

Another typical, lazy dog, expecting a handout. Tax Charges Pile Up As U.S. Companies Report Earnings [WSJ] Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Facebook all took hits to their deferred tax assets, which, as we’ve noted before, is NBD. Analysts are ignoring the effect anyway, but the write-offs are in the billions, people are bound to notice. I’ll […]

Calls for more scrutiny of top accounting firms after Carillion collapse [The Guardian] Stephen Haddrill, the head of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in the U.K., told some MPs that “there should be more competition in the major accounting and audit area” and also that he’d be asking the country’s competition regulator to take another […]

​​​When Good Accountants Go Bad, More Questions Are Raised Than Answered [IIA] Richard Chambers, the president and CEO of the Institute of Internal Auditors, reacts to the allegations in the KPMG-PCAOB scandal, writing that “the extent of the ethical lapses exhibited by the accused is appalling.” He does not believe “for one minute” that these […]

KPMG to be investigated over Carillion auditing [The Guardian] The U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council probe “will cover 2014 to 2016 and additional audit work carried out during 2017,” including “whether KPMG breached any rules, in particular the ethical and technical standards for auditors.” KPMG said it would fully cooperate. The Tax Law, Just One Month […]

What the KPMG Conspiracy Case Revealed About Its Audits [WSJ] Michael Rapoport’s report brings up all the doubts that people are feeling, including former SEC chair Mary Jo White going for the double adverb: “It’s obviously extraordinarily disturbing and an extraordinarily important case to have brought.” Lax oversight allowed ex-regulators to jump to firms they […]

KPMG indictment suggests many who weren’t charged knew regulator data was stolen [MarketWatch] Francine McKenna’s dive into the indictment surfaced with a disturbing possibility: “at least five more unnamed KPMG partners and one outside consultant either knew or chose to ignore the illegal source of the information.” Some Accountants Got Caught in the Revolving Door […]

Many SEC Functions to Cease With Shutdown [WSJ] The Commission says it will be open for “a limited number of days” but if the shutdown continues, “At some point the SEC would stop reviewing or processing all new and pending corporate registration statements.” Whistleblower suing Ernst & Young over gold dealings with Dubai firm [The […]

With Tax Savings, Some Employers Will Boost 401(k) Contributions [WSJ] Visa, Nationwide, and AutoNation are among the companies boosting their matching contributions. This seems like a silver lining in the new tax law since Americans are notoriously bad savers. The Downmarketing Of Tax Shelters [TPC] “An accountant friend now has a stock answer to clients […]

Citigroup Earnings Wiped Out by Tax Charge [WSJ] The $22 billion write-down is eye-popping, sure, but it’s just a result of the company’s deferred tax asset being less valuable under the new tax law. (Citigroup’s DTA topped out at $55 billion.) The fact that this write-down wouldn’t have happened without the big write-downs from the […]

Just let that sneeze go, people. RSM global revenues pass $5bn mark [Economia, RSM] In sticking with accounting firms’ tradition of deceptive self-reporting of revenues, the international firm formerly known as McGladrey reports, “Each of RSM’s service lines grew in 2017” but declined to say how much it grew for its largest service line, audit […]

Tax Law May Send Factories and Jobs Abroad, Critics Say [NYT] Although the intent of the new low corporate rate of 21 percent was to bring companies and investment back to the U.S., some worry that the new low rate of 10.5 percent on income earned by foreign subsidiaries will draw more resources overseas. Proponents […]

Cybersecurity Today Is Treated Like Accounting Before Enron [NYT] Here’s an interesting comparison: From a corporate governance and accountability perspective, cybersecurity today is being treated like accounting was before the fallout from the Enron scandal inspired the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s increased standards for corporate disclosures. With the privacy and personal data of hundreds of millions of […]

Striking fear into the hearts of Oregonians. New York reviewing tax system changes after new federal tax bill [Reuters] Governor Andrew Cuomo plans to sue the federal government because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is “unconstitutional on the grounds that the first federal double taxation in U.S. history violates states’ rights and equal protection.” […]

Judge Says PricewaterhouseCoopers Was Negligent In Colonial Bank Failure [WSJ] Late on Sunday, news broke that a judge in Alabama found PwC negligent in a lawsuit brought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for violating auditing rules and failing to “take steps that could have detected a $2 billion fraud” that contributed to Colonial Bank’s […]