The PCAOB Is Sick and Tired of Not Being Told About Firms’ Past Disciplinary Hearings
RSM US isn’t the only firm that has been lazy about disclosing to the PCAOB that they’ve been involved in a non-PCAOB disciplinary proceeding. In fact, RSM’s affiliate in Hong Kong and Deloitte’s affiliate in Colombia are also guilty of taking too damn long to send the PCAOB the proper paperwork. And now both firms […]
PCAOB Fined RSM US $15,000 for Taking Its Sweet-Ass Time to File a Form 3
Say a PCAOB-registered accounting firm is a defendant or respondent in an administrative or disciplinary proceeding that was initiated by another regulator. That firm has to let the PCAOB know about this by filing Form 3, Special Report, within 30 days after the event. The firm also has to let the PCAOB know that it […]
The AICPA’s Top 10 Tips For Procrastinating Taxpayers
Happy almost April 17th, people! Home stretch here, home stretch. Those helpful folks at the AICPA have issued some tips for trudging slowly toward tax day that probably won't do most of you any good but might serve some procrastinating taxpayers well. Let's put aside our superiority complex for a moment and share. My useless […]
Promotion Watch ’10: Ernst & Young Names 126 New Partners in the Americas
To please you hair-splitters, that number includes principals. E&Y also named 62 new executive directors and 19 new directors.
It’s been a couple weeks since the announcement but we finally were able to run down a few details on the new partners at E&Y:
We’re not sure why Howe had to slip in the diversity soundbite there but he did. Thoughts?
In terms of the breakdown, right now we only have a few specifics so far out of the Northeast:
Of the offices in NY, MA, CT, RI, and NJ, we had a total of 16 new execs: nine tax, four advisory, and a whopping three assurance.
If you’ve got more details, let us know. Congrats to the new PPEDDs at E&Y!
Overstock.com Turns a Profit; Patrick Byrne Writes a Very Un-Patrick Byrne Letter to Shareholders
This morning we thought the KPMG audit team working on Overstock.com would continue slaving away through the extension deadline tomorrow to get that beast of 10-K finished. Well! Turns out they’ll be t of you tonight because the OSTK 10-K has been filed and, as promised Overstock shareholders, your humble servant Patrick Byrne and Co. are reporting an annual profit for the first time ever!
After such a high, restatement or not, we’re guessing Sam Antar definitely won’t be getting an apology but Gary Weiss has already noted a couple of things:
First–stop the presses! Overstock’s auditors at KPMG says that Overstock has insufficient internal controls.
Second, the Marin County District Attorney and four other DAs in northern California want the company to fork over $8.5 million to settle consumer ripoffs by Overstock. The company disagrees and is fighting it, so …. No, wait a moment, make that read “$7.5 million.”
First off, we share Gary’s shock — SHOCK! — on the insufficient internal controls revelation. Second – AUDITORS! We talked about this, remember? Read the 10-K carefully. Overstock’s “Risk Factors” section runs 25 pages for crissakes. A million fucking clams can’t get missed!
You know what though? Mistakes happen, so we’ll let it slide.
Oh, and about that letter to shareholders. Patsy doesn’t bring up former auditor Grant Thornton once, doesn’t quote Nietzsche, compiain about short sellers, bring up Facebook, or say anything remotely antagonizing (although on page 32, the Company’s states he still might).
This makes think: 1) Is he not feeling well? 2) We want the old Patrick back! Read for yourself:
Dear Owner:
In Q4 our revenues grew 27%, twice the ecommerce industry’s rate, and we earned $12.7 million in net income. In 2009 we grew revenues 6%, earned $7.7 million in net income, generated $46 million in operating cash flow, and generated $39 million in free cash flow. It’s nice to be profitable.
I am proud that, for the second year in a row, we rank number 2 in the NRF/Amex survey of American consumers, behind only LL Bean and ahead of Amazon, Zappos, eBay, Nordstrom, and many other fine firms.
As you may know, at the end of Q4 we engaged KPMG as our independent auditors, and announced that we were restating our FY 2008 and Q1, Q2 and Q3 2009 financial statements. I thank you for being patient with us as we worked through the questions raised by the SEC, the transition to the KPMG team, and the extra time it took to ensure that our financial statements are accurate.
I look forward to our conference call next Monday. Until then, I remain,
Your humble servant,
Patrick M. Byrne