Crowe Horwath is looking for a Fed Tax Senior Manager in Indy, IN. [GCJ] AICPA Launches Online Community for Young CPAs [AICPA] The Whistle-Blower’s Quandary Is reporting misdeeds an act of heroism or betrayal? [NYT] Dave Camp for Senate? [Bloomberg] China's Sinovel Wind Group Sets Rules to Prevent Accounting Errors [WSJ] Time Warner Cable drops CBS […]

Accountant dies from heart attack during a game of cricket at Lords Philip Standing was only 30. [Telegraph] A Strategy of Tattletales at the I.R.S. [DealBook] Senate Report Details HP & Microsoft Offshore Tax Ploys [Forbes] Some E&Y extra specials in Orange County got their own press release. [E&Y] Fortune Finds 50 Women Who Haven’t Been Mommy-Tracked […]

Newman confirmed as Audit Commission chairman [Accountancy Age] Prince to Answer IRS Information Request, Manager Says [BBW] What do Americans Think About Nonpayers? [Tax Foundation] Lessor defends aircraft industry in accounting spat [Reuters] Democrats make last-minute stab at tax extenders [The Hill] Why the tax law is so picky about documenting travel deductions [Tax Update] About […]

COSO Issues ICEFR ED; Pay Att'n Plenty: Comments Due Nov. 20 [FEI] Romney Steps in Taxes, Again [Chris Bergin] IASB warns of reduction in bank lending [FT] UBS Accountant Found $3.6B Adoboli Trade Discrepancy William Steward, a former accountant in product control for UBS AG (UBSN), said he began looking into trades by Kweku Adoboli in […]

Auditors Look Ripe For Revolution Earlier this year, investors pushed successfully for some major U.K. companies to change their pay policies. Now they have accounting firms in their sights. Some, including Legal & General Investment Management, one of the largest owners of FTSE 100 shares, want companies to change their auditors at least every 15 years […]

Did the Government Profit From AIG? That's the Wrong Question Treasury never uses the term "profit," even in press releases. The term it does use, "positive return", is a non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles metric. Treasury has sunk to the level of a social commerce IPO like Groupon, whose infamous Consolidated Segment Operating Income (CSOI) –which was […]

Ex-Lawyer Donna Guerin Pleads Guilty in Tax-Shelter Case [BBW] IRS Needs Help Identifying Fraud Cases [AT] Which tax cuts stimulate the economy? [DCJ/Reuters] Bob Moritz is a responsible CEO [EL] Stanford Ex-Investment Chief Pendergest Holt Gets 3 Years [BBW] QE3 arrives The job of monetary policy, in the famous words of Fed chairman William McChesney Martin, is […]

Neil Barofsky On Bailouts, TARP, and Whether It Was All Worth It “The auditors have proven themselves to me, over and over again, to be more concerned about the steady stream of fees than in doing their job.” [Forbes] SEC whistleblower program stricter than IRS bounty which paid $104 million to felon, former official says [Reuters] […]

Health Law Means IRS Quagmire, Former Commissioner Says [BBW] Worthless Internships A more realistic look at the [Northwestern Mutual] survey […] might lead one to the conclusion that internships are pretty terrible. Students work at internships in order to look more attractive to potential employers. Then the work they do in those internships doesn’t have much […]

French newspaper to France's richest man: "Get lost, you rich bastard" [NS via TaxProf] Tim Geithner had a pretty good finish in Nation’s Triathlon 2:33:07 [WaPo] KPMG strikes out in bid to toss Texas Rangers fraud suit [TRNI] Finance Chiefs Should Steer Better Board Reporting, Experts Say [CFO] Why Facebook Is Paying the Tax Tab on Employee Compensation […]

Facebook Investors Know Exactly Whom to Blame [Bloomberg] Top 100 Influential People [AT] In Retrospect, CNBC Thinks Investing With Bernie Madoff Wasn’t Such A Bad Idea [DB] Reading the Tax Reform Tea Leaves [Tax Foundation] Are You Ready for Candy Corn Flavored Oreos? No, Of Course You’re Not [Gawker] An Ad Agency Crowdsources Its Own […]

Chart of the day, party neighborhood edition [Felix Salmon] ResCap Says PWC Review Could Cost $250 Million, Up From $180 Million Since retaining PwC in May 2011, ResCap has paid the company $51.7 million in fees and expenses, the filing said. Since the bankruptcy filing, PwC has racked up about $7 million per month, but ResCap […]

NY Court to Decide if Lap Dance Is Tax-Exempt Art [AP] Obama Is Wrong On Romney Tax Plan Impact [Bloomberg] Peregrine trustee asks permission to hire PriceWaterhouseCoopers [DMR] Refco Trustee Dismisses Last Claim Against Grant Thornton [BBW] Auditors Give Banks a Pass on Reserves, KPMG Report Shows We've got three more "Big Four" inspections reports […]

PwC to investigate computer meltdown at RBS [Telegraph] Paul Ryan's Ex-GF Served Prison Time For Wire Fraud Deneeta D. Pope — who made headlines recently as Ryan's African-American GF in college — was indicted by a Grand Jury in November 1999 for allegedly swindling her former employer — Ernst & Young — out of $77,000. Pope pled guilty in […]

That's it for us, capital market servants. We'll return Tuesday. Have a safe and laborless weekend! Laboring In The Big 4 – A Labor Day Special Report A little flash from the past. [RTA] World's richest woman says poor should have less fun, work harder Just in case you were beginning to think rich people were deeply […]

Four Years After Madoff, Audits and Auditors of Broker-Dealers Still Lousy Having your private company or fund audit performed by a Big Four audit firm is no guarantee of quality. As a matter of fact, I would argue that the quality may often be less than what you might get at a medium-size, regional firm […]

How Bain Capital execs lower their taxes Tax law is a funny thing, because certain strategies aren't black and white. They're subject to interpretation. When I asked a PE tax attorney if what Bain is doing is allowed, she told me that "allowed" and "not allowed" isn't always the right way to think about it. [Fortune] Man […]

Bain Capital Partners and PwC: A Rich and Varied Relationship [AB] Should Congress Curb Tax-Exempt Municipal Bonds? [T]here is the politics [to consider]. Is Congress really going to tell bondholders that those tax-exempts they bought in good faith (and at relatively low yields) are now going to become taxable? Imagine seniors with pitchforks. On the other […]

HK regulator launches legal proceedings against Ernst & Young Hong Kong's securities regulator said on Monday it had launched legal proceedings against Ernst & Young for failing to produce accounting records related to a Chinese company as specified, the latest auditor to run into trouble over a Chinese client. Ernst & Young claimed it did not have […]

Bad Grades Rising at Audit Firms [NYT] Romney confirms he'd replace Bernanke [The Hill] Madoff Trustee Cleared to Return $2.4 Billion [WSJ] The US-China Accounting Standoff [HFN] Judge Wants Tax Increase To Defend Against (Possible) Civil War [Forbes] Grover Norquist Opposes Insane Texas Judge’s Tax Plan Asked for a ruling on whether such a tax increase […]

Mitt Romney's Tax Plan and the Middle Class [WSJ, Earlier] Six Reasons My Kid is Better Than Your Kid [DT] Already Behind The Eight-Ball: Auditors of Broker-Dealers Are A Disaster [Forbes] If You’ve Got A Problem With Paul Ryan, Say It To Dan Loeb’s Face [DB] Despite Sales Drop, Dell CFO Is Bullish on Laptops Brian […]

Exploring Mitt Romney’s Taxes and Tax Plan [Economix/NYT] Lauryn Hill Now Facing State Tax Troubles [DT] Accountants: What it takes to start your own business [JofA] SEC Issues First Whistleblower Program Award “The whistleblower program is already becoming a success,” said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro, who advocated for the program. “We’re seeing high-quality tips […]

Apple Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company Ever, With an Asterisk [Bits/NYT] Romney's tax returns take 2 [DMWT] The Rich Are Less Charitable Than the Middle Class: Study [CNBC] GOP lawmaker accuses SEC of dragging feet on JOBS Act [The Hill] ZAGG CEO Sold Stock Three Days before His Resignation [WCF] FASB Proposal Aims to […]

Standard Chartered Fought the Lawsky and the Lawsky Won [Bloomberg] Baseball star Eddie Murray settles SEC insider trading charges [Reuters] Moonlighting: Office Gossip — Good for You?? [ATL] Russell Wasendorf Didn’t Mean “I have embezzled millions of dollars from Customer accounts at Peregrine Financial” In A Literal Sense [DB] Ryan Would Play ’Similar’ Role To […]

Sony Corp. and the Mystery of the Lousy Audit [Bloomberg] Dewey Have Data on How Much Partners Got Paid? Yes — Thanks to the Partner Contribution Plan [ATL] Walter White wanted for manufacturing meth [TN via io9] Man, 87, Busted for 400 Pot Plants in Backyard [Reuters] Ex-UGA coach Jim Donnan charged in Ponzi scheme […]

Sen. Levin: New York regulator showed ‘backbone’ in bank settlement [The Hill] Groupon’s accounting shuffle: why it matters [ZDNet] Mitt Romney: Rich taxpayers will pay their share Q: Specifically what tax loopholes would you close and what exemptions would you eliminate to make the revenue-neutral equation work? A: Simpson-Bowles laid out a formula that shows that you […]

Paul Ryan’s Wife Is A Housewife Now, But She Used To Be A Lawyer And A Lobbyist At PwC, no less. [ATL] New York’s A.G. Probes Nonprofits’ Political Spending [Bloomberg] Grant Thornton creates scholarship fund for MSU students [AT] British Bank in $340 Million Settlement for Laundering [NYT] Punishing Groupon: Social Media Backlash? [CFO] First Strippers, […]

Groupon’s Accounting Still Evolving [WSJ] Ryan Plans to Release Two Years of Tax Returns [AT] The Ryan Budget Plan May Be the New Centerpiece of Campaign 2012 [TaxVox] The Paul Ryan Record on Tax and Budget Policy [Tax Foundation] Insane Clown… Plaintiffs? Juggalos Consider Suing the FBI [ATL] Here Are Cinema’s 100 Greatest Maniacal Laughs […]

What Goldman Sachs Did and the Justice Department Didn't [Bloomberg] Emails Describe Overstock.com Waging War — On Behalf of its Enemies [Gary Weiss] You Misplace 5 Or 6 Billion Dollars And All Of A Sudden People Stop Trusting You To Keep Track Of Your Money When JPMorgan’s whale drowned a lot of people asked “where were […]

Mitt Romney’s wrong: You can balance the budget through taxes. But you may not want to. [Wonkblog/WaPo] Zynga Is Said To Grant Stock Awards To Staff After Earnings Miss Stock options were given to all of Zynga’s full-time workers shortly after its earnings report on July 25, said the person, who asked not to be […]

Indigestion for ‘les Riches’ in a Plan for Higher Taxes [NYT] IRS Workers Discouraged From Finding Fraud, Report Says [WSJ] Misunderstanding Tax Reform: The Case of The Olympic Tax Elimination Act Senator Rubio and Congressman Schock are correct that these high taxes on Olympic medal winners are symptomatic of our broken code, but they misunderstand the […]

Deloitte and Standard Chartered Bank: In Service To Profit Above All [Forbes] Does the Revolving Door Affect the SEC’s Enforcement Outcomes? [AAA] The Value Of The San Diego Padres Grew $300 Million In Three Years Because Baseball Owners Are Stupid Phil Mickelson was once known as a serious gambler. He bet obsessively on NFL games, even though […]

Nancy Pelosi: 'It Is A Fact' That Somebody Told Harry Reid About Romney Not Paying Taxes [HP] Chesapeake Expects $7 Billion in Asset Sales This Quarter [WSJ] Governor Kasich's Latest Income Tax Reduction Plan [David Brunori] America’s Hottest Club Is Applebee’s [Gawker] The Numbers Inside a Hot-Button Issue "Who's right: Obama or Romney? Both. Or neither," […]

House votes to start considering tax reform by April 30, 2013 [DMWT] Romney to Harry Reid: I pay "a lot of taxes" [CBS] Polish Shot Put Gold Medalist’s Celebration Nearly Interrupts Women’s 10K Final, Ends In Evil Laugh [Deadspin] Cocaine Cowboys Know Best Places to Bank Maybe if the bankers were the ones spraying machine-gun fire […]

Romney Adviser Accuses Harry Reid Of McCarthyism Over Taxes [TPM] House passes plan for tax reform in 2013 [FAB/The Hill] Senate panel passes tax bill in rare bipartisan show Democratic Representative Barney Frank said the bill would give too much power to Republican Ways and Means Committee Chairman David Camp, and criticized its specificity on tax […]

Tax payers fund questionable Royals expenses [810WBH] The Kansas City Chiefs Are Using Taxpayer Money To Pay Their Taxes, Too [Deadspin] What happens when a real attorney tries tax protest arguments? Arguments that you don’t have to really pay federal income taxes never go away despite a long and dismal record of failure.  They are typically […]

2nd Day of Power Failures Cripples Wide Swath of India [NYT] Microsoft's radical new business plan is hidden in plain sight [ZDNet] Peregrine Financial: 4 Common Methods of Camouflaging Fraud [WSJ] IRS Not Fully Reimbursed for Services to Other Agencies [AT] Federal Jury Doesn’t Want SEC To Take This The Wrong Way, But It Thinks […]

U.S. probe into Chinese client deals fresh challenge to Deloitte [Reuters] 4 Percent Of Americans Think Jamie Dimon Is Prepping His Bike To Jump The 526 Feet Between The Top Of JPMorgan Headquarters And The Roof Of The Old Bear Stearns Building [DB] Dead Cat Mars Usually Lovely Albany Bar Exam Experience [ATL] House to vote […]

NUGENT: Grover Norquist — Beltway’s Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry Norquist, president of Americans For Tax Reform (atr.org), has never seen a tax increase he supports, which should immediately put him at the head of the line for a Presidential Medal of Freedom once Mitt Romney is elected. If there was a Hall of Fame of Common […]

Facebook Growth Slows Again; Shares Fall 10% [WSJ] Republicans Shouldn’t Cave on the Bush Tax Cuts [Bloomberg] Madoff Trustee Wants Victims to Get More Money [AP] Woman Accidentally Bakes Family’s Entire Life Savings After Husband Hides It in the Oven [Gawker] Trustee in Darren Berg Ponzi case ordered to pay Moss Adams $74K in legal […]

Senate Passes Tax Measure With Election in Mind [NYT] Jumping to conclusions, Malcom Gladwell edition [Felix Salmon] Will Accounting Charges Spoil Facebook’s Earnings Debut? The company will incur a massive charge as it lifts restrictions on employee stock in conjunction with its second-quarter IPO. The company has warned that those could result in nearly a […]

Of Crimes and Punishments — And Where Shall Justice Be Found? [Re:Balance] CFO Snapshot: Aon’s Christa Davies [Q:] What was the hardest part of getting the CFO title? [A:] It was convincing myself and others that I wasn’t a fraud because I did not have an accounting degree. [CFO] Accounting firms have no business on Facebook [AFR] IRS […]

Libor: What Criminal Charges Are Likely?  [NetNet] Response to the $21 trillion Tax Avoidance Study [Tax Foundation] The Latest News on Tax Fairness [WSJ] Norquist: Bachmann claim 'indefensible' Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist called Michelle Bachmann’s recent claim about Secretary of State aide Huma Abedin “indefensible.” Bachmann alleged recently that Abedin, wife of former Congressman […]

Priceless SpongeBob SquarePants Coins Couldn’t Prevent Collapse Of Peregrine Financial Group [DB] U.S. corporate auditor watchdog gains access to Spain [Reuters] You Got the Accounting Job. Now What? At PricewaterhouseCooper [sic], it takes an average of 13 years to become a partner, says Paula Loop, U.S. and global talent leader for the firm. As a person […]

US SEC delays court action seeking Deloitte China audit papers [Reuters] Grant Thornton chief calls for more action on fraud [Australian]   Baker Tilly slammed by $50 million jury verdict Hit with a $50 million verdict for negligence, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP is suing its insurance carrier for refusing to cover most of the damages […]

Does Not Compute: PFG Head Says Spent Stolen Client Money To Comply With Regulator Demands "The note and the statement, which a person familiar with the situation said were left by Peregrine Chief Executive Russell Wasendorf Sr., blames the fraud on "mean spirited" regulators that dogged his firm, saying they were looking to put firms out […]