“This is one of the biggest battlegrounds in the transnational regulation of accounting firms,” said Paul Gillis, a visiting professor of accounting at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. “Deloitte is between a rock and a hard place. This is a major escalation.” [WSJ, Earlier]
Tag: Deloitte
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a international professional services network headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
Here you’ll find news about Deloitte salaries and raises, promotions, press releases, and lawsuits.
SEC Not Amused By Deloitte’s Failure to Produce Documents Related to Company That Held Their Audit Workpapers Hostage
Remember Longtop Financial Technologies? Deloitte resigned as auditors of the Chinese company back in May after LFT took some actions that were, shall we say, unusual for an audit client. Among them, “interference by certain members of Longtop management in DTT’s audit process; and […] the unlawful detention of DTT’s audit files.” And there may be some financial statement fraud going on, to boot. What’s even slightly weirder is Deloitte’s resig nt to Longtop’s Audit Committee that laid out the specifics:
[A]s a result of intervention by the Company’s officials including the Chief Operating Officer, the confirmation process was stopped amid serious and troubling new developments including: calls to banks by the Company asserting that Deloitte was not their auditor; seizure by the Company’s staff of second round bank confirmation documentation on bank premises; threats to stop our staff leaving the Company premises unless they allowed the Company to retain our audit files then on the premises; and then seizure by the Company of certain of our working papers.
Right. The auditors-almost-taken-hostage situation. Quite a doozy, this one. Based on the history between Deloitte and Longtop, one would think that Green Dot would jump at any chance to exact a little revenge on these shady bastards. NOPE!
From the crack squad at the SEC:
The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed a subpoena enforcement action against Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu CPA Ltd. for failing to produce documents related to the SEC’s investigation into possible fraud by the Shanghai-based public accounting firm’s longtime client Longtop Financial Technologies Limited.
According to the SEC’s application and supporting papers filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the SEC issued a subpoena on May 27, 2011, and D&T Shanghai was required to produce documents by July 8, 2011. Although D&T Shanghai is in possession of vast amounts of documents responsive to the subpoena, it has not produced any documents to the SEC to date. As a result, the Commission is unable to gain access to information that is critical to an investigation that has been authorized for the protection of public investors.
“Compliance with an SEC subpoena is not an option, it is a legal obligation,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “The ability of the SEC to conduct swift and thorough investigations requires that subpoena recipients promptly comply with that legal obligation. Subpoena recipients who refuse to comply should expect serious legal consequences.”
Maybe the email/hand-written letter sent by carrier pigeon (whatever method of communication the Commission is using these days) got lost OR maybe no one at Deloitte Shanghai was in the translating mood that day but it seems slightly strange that Deloitte would just blow this off especially since Longtop screwed them 70 ways to Sunday. Of course these documents could show that Deloitte was really a bunch of pansies and we’re letting LFT run the show until the gross negligence got to the point that they simply couldn’t ignore it anymore. It’s anybody’s guess, really.
UPDATE: The Journal reports that Deloitte claims to be “caught in the middle of conflicting demands by two government regulators,” which could be seen as extremely convenient.
SEC Files Subpoena Enforcement Action Against Deloitte & Touche in Shanghai [SEC]
Court Filing [SEC]
Also see: S.E.C. Asks Court to Force a Release of Papers From China [NYT]
Analysis: If Your Accounting Firm Was a College Football Team
Pack up your white pants and seersucker suits – Labor Day has come and gone which means only one (actually important) thing: college football is back. You NFL loving freaks can have your Sundays of Hollywood-produced sport; I believe the good Lord created Sundays solely as a recovery day for college football fans. Well, for that and drunk brunches, of course.
It is no secret that good ol’ Caleb is a vehement Husker fan, he only reason he’s given me the green light to churn out a post comparing your respective accounting firms to the likes of fried-butter-eating college football fanatics.
I can only pray that my effort will inspire the semi-regular infusion of sport, accounting, and bantering commenters around here, so I give you the “Accounting Firms If They Were A College Football Program” top nine rankings. Grab your body paint and come along for the tailgate.
Firm: Deloitte
Team: Oklahoma Sooners
First Take: Both are always in title contention but seem to shit the bed come Pay Day. Deloitte raises are on par with the Sooners’ BCS bowl record under Coach Bob Stoops (2-8).
Keep it in the Family: During Hurricane Irene, Deloitte encouraged employees to bunk up together, obviously a practice long in use in Oklahoma.
Sputter, Sputter: Sooner alum Blake Griffin jumped over a KIA at last year’s NBA slam dunk contest. A certain Deloitte consultant also prefers a certain overused and washed out mode of transportation…
Firm: PwC
Team: Oregon Ducks
First Take: They’re in the news for legit (raises, hurry-up offense) and controversial (fireside chats, BCS infractions) more often than you’d like. Also, their team colors are atrocious.
Hotties Everywhere: PDubs has Ireland. The Ducks have these ladies.
Just Pick One Already: PwC doesn’t churn out new logo/uniform re-designs as often as the Ducks but both cause a stir when they do. Whether the changes for either team result in better winnings has yet to be seen.
Firm: Ernst & Young
Team: Ohio State Buckeyes
First Take: You hate going up against them, but even if they do win, you’re thankful you’re not affiliated with their alumni.
Compliance? What Compliance? Former coach Jim Tressell thought it best to let a tattoos-for-autographs program run its course. E&Y is apparently doing the same with this minor Sino-Forest sitch.
Questionable Mascots: The poisonous nuts of the Midwest are no match for the Black & Yellow guy.
Firm: KPMG
Team: Notre Dame Fighting Irish
First Take: Still talking about that big win in 1983. An exodus of leadership. The general public has gone from loathing them to just feeling bad for them. Give it up, you’re no longer the powerhouse you (thought you) once were.
Johnny Be Good. The Chairman is also a proud ND alum. Need we say more?
Empty Promises: We’re going to win it all! We’re going to hire thousands!
Firm: Grant Thornton
Team: Northwestern Wildcats
First Take: As hard you they try to be tough, they’re still nerds dressed in purple.
Off-the-Mark Advertising: GT – the lack of aligned teeth took some bite out of your full-page WSJ ad. And Dan Persa for Heisman – really? Your mom for Heisman.
Firm: Rothstein Kass
Team: Boise State Broncos
First Take: First it was a feel-good story but their continued rise through the ranks is pissing off the traditionalists.
The-Anybody-But-The-Other-Guy- Vote: Whether it was Boise’s ridiculously fantastic win over Oklahoma years ago in the Fiesta Bowl or RK’s dominance in the Going Concern March Madness pool, oftentimes their fan support stemmed from us just hating their competition more.
Firm: McGladrey
Team: Missouri Tigers
Only Take: You’re supposed to be on this list; we know you belong on this list; we don’t know what you’ve done to deserve being on this list.
Firm: BDO
Team: Penn State Nittany Lions
First Take: Your parents would have been pleased if you went there but better options awaited you.
Race to the Retirement Home: JoePa is 84 and coaching from the press box. Rumor has it Jack Weisbaum calls the shots from his personal tanning bed.
Firm: CBIZ/Mayer Hoffman McCann
Team: University Buffalo Bulls
Only Take: You think you’re a big deal, but really everyone uses you as an exhibition punching bag.
How’d we do? What team best parodies your firm? Share it in the comments below.
Hurricane Irene Watch: Deloitte New York Offices Officially Closed, Evacuees Encouraged to Bunk Up with Co-workers If Necessary
If Deloitte employees took the last email concerning preparations for Hurricane Irene seriously, they likely took plenty of work home as it could be a extra-long weekend. However, if you’re a New York employee and thought, “Gosh, I’ve got so much to do, it may take me two trips to get all the work home,” and were saving that second trip for this morning, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise – the office is closed! Now, you might not have thought that the firm needed to announce such a thing but since the City has announced that everyone in Lower Manhattan has to GTFO and that the subway will quit running in T-minus one hour, the firm figured it better play ball.
Hurricane Irene Update
Weekend office closures and travel advisory
To all Northeast professionals:
Due to the impending hurricane that will impact the Northeast region, several Deloitte offices will be closed over the weekend. As of now, we expect to be open for business on Monday and will continue to update you from this mailbox, as needed.
1WFC, 2WFC, and 25 Broadway offices will be closed on Saturday, August 27 and Sunday, August 28 due to a mandatory evacuation order for lower Manhattan. New York City subways and buses will stop running at noon, as will PATH trains and commuter railroads connecting Manhattan to New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester, and Connecticut.
Some of you may be asked to evacuate your location or home due to safety concerns. If you are unable to find alternative housing, we will try to match you up with another Deloitte colleague. If you are able to host one of your evacuated colleagues or need emergency housing, please email Northeast Field Operations (subject: NE Evacuation Housing Request) or [redacted] as soon as possible.
Also, please take a moment now to ensure we have your most current personal and emergency contact information by visiting this site on DeloitteNet now.
Visit the following websites for a complete mass transit update:
· MTA
· NJ Transit
· CT Transit
· NJ Path
· SEPTA (Philly) – suspending Sunday only
· MBTA (Boston) – no announcement yet
· CT Transit – no announcement yetStay safe,
[redacted]
Northeast Regional Operations Leader
For those of you that were forced to evacuate, hopefully you’ve been able to do so quickly and safely. However, in the unfortunate event that you don’t have a place to go, it’s nice that Deloitte is encouraging its employees to help out their brethren. Our tipster also recognized another possibility:
No word yet on whether they are seeking to keep engagement teams together during the storm so that the client service work can continue.
So, stay productive Green Dotters. But more importantly, stay safe.
Hurricane Irene Watch: Deloitte Edition
As you may have heard, there’s a bit of a storm coming to the east coast. Since the DC area got the brunt of the earthquake, those in charge of the weather figured the Northeast got a bit short-changed in the natural disaster department. As is typical in these situations, firm leadership sends out some talking points to make sure everyone knows what to do in case worst happens (e.g. client are unable to pay, FOBs stop working). Deloitte’s message came out late yesterday and our tipster was not impressed:
Here’s our token disaster update from Uncle D. Not even one reference to being careful and staying safe??? Our disaster plans include taking work home with us and backing up our laptops in case we’re killed. That’s a new low, even for the Big 4.
Northeast Update
Hurricane Irene
To all Northeast professionals:
As you are likely aware, Hurricane Irene is gaining momentum and officials have issued watches for the Northeast area starting on Saturday, August 27.
This email contains important information for you to do and consider:
· While our office is currently scheduled to be open on Monday, use your own judgment regarding your personal safety and coordinate with your direct Supervisor or Manager to advise them of your plans.
· Take your laptop, related accessories, and any files that you may need home with you.
· Be sure to complete a back-up on your laptop prior to the weekend in case of any power outages.
· If you are in an office with a window, clear all articles from the window ledge and remove any boxes from the floor.
· If you are using an airport in the region, check your flight status before leaving for the airport. The Deloitte Travel Center [redacted] can help with any necessary re-scheduling.
· For ideas on making a family plan, visit Ready America, and go to the National Hurricane Center website for detailed storm updates.
We will continue to monitor the storm and its path over this weekend. If there is a change to our office’s status, we will issue an email before 6:00 a.m. Monday morning with further instructions.
Stay safe,
[redacted]
Northeast Regional Operations Leader
Well, “Stay safe” as a valediction could be understood as “be careful/be safe” but our tipster sure didn’t take it that way. If you find your firm’s Irene information email to be hysterical, indifferent or if your firm seems to be blowing the whole thing off, we’d love to see it. Send it our way.
Today in Spineless Audit Committees: Morris Publishing
As we’re all aware, the Audit Committee is supposed to be one of the key tools in corporate governance. If management is messing around with financial reporting, disclosures or there’s trouble with the auditors, the audit committee should be all over it like stink on a monkey. The audit committee also is in charge of appointing/firing the auditors to prevent management from throwing out auditors who tell them things that they don’t like.
Apparently this is not the case with Atlanta-based Morris Publishing. In a recent 8-K, the company explained that they fired Deloitte and more or less admitted that their audit comm orthless:
Dismissal of Auditor.
On August 17, 2011, Morris Publishing Group, LLC (“Morris Publishing”, “we”, “our”, “us”) dismissed Deloitte & Touche LLP (“D&T”) as its independent registered public accounting firm.
The decision to allow our management, at its discretion, to change auditors had been unanimously approved by our Board of Directors and its Audit Committee on July 18, 2011. [this is my emphasis]
The audit reports of D&T on our consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2010 and December 31, 2009, did not contain any adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion, nor were they qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope, or accounting principles, except:
(A) The audit report as of and for the year ended December 31, 2009 included the statements, “As discussed in Note 6 to the consolidated financial statements, on January 19, 2010 the Company filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. On February 17, 2010 the Bankruptcy Court entered an order confirming the plan of reorganization which became effective after the close of business on March 1, 2010.”
(B) The audit report as of and for the year ended December 31, 2010 included the statement, “As discussed in Note 10 to the financial statements, the accompanying 2009 financial statements have been restated to correct a misstatement.”
During the two fiscal years ended December 31, 2010 and December 31, 2009, and during the subsequent interim periods through June 30, 2011, there were no (1) disagreements with D&T on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedures, which disagreements if not resolved to the satisfaction of D&T would have caused D&T to make reference in connection with their report to the subject matter of the disagreement, or (2) “reportable events” as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K; except as follows:
(A) We reported in April 2011 that management discovered errors in the accounting treatment for debt extinquishment such that our financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2009, and the interim periods ended March 31, 2010, June 30, 2010 and September 30, 2010, should no longer be relied upon, and that the correction of these errors will be reflected within our Form 10-K for 2010 and subsequently filed interim reports; and
(B) as reported in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, we identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting with respect to the operational effectiveness of controls in the area of accounting for complex non-recurring transactions. As a result of this material weakness, we concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of December 31, 2010.
We provided D&T with a copy of this Current Report on Form 8-K, and requested that D&T furnish us with a letter addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission stating whether D&T agrees with our statements made in response to the disclosures required by Item 304(a)(3) of Regulation S-K. We subsequently received the requested letter, and a copy of such letter is filed as Exhibit16.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K.
So it appears that Morris Publishing is definitely one of those clients. The kind that makes you wish that you had chosen a career that’s less likely to make you want to jump out of a window. Anyway, the aforementioned letter from Deloitte states the following:
We have read Item 4 of Morris Publishing Group LLC’s Form 8-K dated August 16, 2011, and we have the following comments:
1. We agree with the statements made in paragraphs 1 and 3 through 12.
2. We have no basis on which to agree or disagree with the statement made in paragraph 2.
In other words, Deloitte is saying, “Yes, we agree that your financial reporting is a mess and that your internal controls are awful. And if you want to admit that your audit committee is a bunch of lackeys for management, we’re not going to stop you.”
8-K [SEC]
Deloitte Letter [SEC]
Let’s Congratulate the New Deloitte Partners and Directors
Perhaps it’s no accident that Joe Echevarria’s Q&A dropped in the Journal today because we also had the good fortune to have the list of new partners and directors forwarded to us earlier today. We still waiting for confirmation of the details from various Deloitte PR folks so we won’t give you names but we’re sharing a number of cities and practices after the jump.
Altogether there are 144 new partners and 190 new directors for fiscal year 2012. These numbers vary a little bit with our first report of the new partner numbers from a few weeks back. In that post, our tipster informed us that had there were 146 partners and 180 directors. These differences, for our purposes, are deemed immaterial, although we’re sure anyone directly affected would disagree.
Partners
AERS: 55 Total. Cities with the largest numbers of promotees: New York – 12; Chicago – 4; Wilton, CT – 4; Los Angeles – 3; Dallas – 3; San Francisco – 2; Orange County -2.
Consulting: 48 Total. Big winners: Atlanta – 5; Chicago 5; San Francisco – 5; Los Angeles – 4; New York – 3; Orange County – 3; Kansas City – 3; Boston – 3; Arlington – 3.
FAS: Six total: New York – 3; Dallas – 2; Los Angeles – 1.
Tax: 32 Total: New York – 6; Chicago – 5; Houston – 3; Washington – 3; Atlanta – 2.
USA: Three total: Atlanta, Washington and New York each had one.
Directors
AERS: 56 total. Show-off cities: New York – 14; San Francisco – 3; Cleveland – 3; Salt Lake City – 2; Princeton – 2; Philadelphia – 2; Parsippany – 2; McLean – 2; Chicago – 2.
Clients & Industries: Six total: New York – 3; Philadelphia, Charlotte and San Francisco all had one.
Consulting: 53 total. Notables: San Francisco – 6; Chicago – 6; New York – 5; Atlanta – 3; Boston – 3; Minneapolis – 3; McLean – 3; Washington – 3.
FAS: Four total – Washington 2; New York and Chicago – 1.
Field Operations: Two – Atlanta and Hyderbad
Finance: A pair in Hermitage, TN.
Markets & Offerings: Two in Chicago and nine cities with one each.
Other Shared Services: One lonely soul in Wilton, CT.
PR/Communications: One in New York and one in Wilton.
Research/Innovation: Hermitage and Wilton with one each.
Strategy, Brand and Innovation: One happy camper in Los Angeles.
Talent: One each for Chicago, Parsippany, Boston and Indianapolis.
Tax: 38 total: Chicago – 7; New York – 5; San Francisco – 4; Atlanta – 2; Boston – 2; Los Angeles – 2; Philadelphia – 2.
Tech: One each for New York, Camp Hill, PA and Hyderbad
USA: One soul in Stamford, Rosslyn, Arlington, Richmond and Wilton.
So congratulations to all the new partners and directors. Leave them some well wishes in the comments. The only question now is, which one of these rainmakers is buying Joe’s house?
Engineer Curious to Know if an Advisory Role with PwC or Deloitte Would Be a Good Opportunity
Ed. note: Looking for career guidance from a couple of Big 4 expats or our resident permanently ink-stained wench? Email us at advice@goingconcern.com.
Hello,
I have become an avid reader of your website and need your help regarding an opportunity. I have an engineering background and 5 years of experience in the heavy construction industry specifically oil & gas. In hopes to moving on to something different and possibly working as a consultant I have got a chance to work at PWC and Deloitte in a senior associate advisory role. I do know that these companies are primarily in audit but the sales pitch they gave me was that they were trying to build the Capital Projects Advisory division. Do you all think it is good opportunity?
Sincerely,
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo
Dear Chugs,
As a self-proclaimed avid reader, I hope you caught the post I did in June about the engineering consultant in a similar situation as yours. Check it out for feedback focused on what to do once you start at your new gig in a Big 4’s advisory practice.
That said, you’re asking if the chance to work at the #1 or #2 public accounting firms in the world are “good” opportunities. I follow up your question with one of my own:
If working for #1 or #2 is not a good opportunity, what more are you looking for?
So yes, they are great opportunities to jump start your career into the “consulting” slash advisory biz. Sure, they crank out audits and tax returns, but those are very different revenue generating streams than their advisory practices. To put things in more engineering terms – wary of working in the advisory group of PwC or DT because they perform assurance services is like turning down an aerospace engineering job at GE because they also make light bulbs.
Assuming the offer details are similar, look at each firm’s Capital Projects practices. Which group is more established? Have they made other external hires recently? What is each group’s current market share/focus, and what are long term plans?
Good luck with whichever role you pursue, and welcome to the Big 4 community.
Cheers,
DWB


The lucky new Mr. Tara Reid is none other than Zack (aka Zach, aka Zachary) Kehayov and he works out of Deloitte Consulting’s Washington, D.C. office, according to