EY Sued By Man Claiming He Was Disabled Due to Pending Ulcer, High Blood Pressure
UPDATE: This case has been settled. Details below. Christopher Cotter is a 52-year-old Houston man who “suffers from peptic inflammatory disease and labile hypertension," according to a complaint filed against the Big 4 firm formerly known as Ernst & Young in a Southern District of Texas court on August 5th. In layman's terms, he has […]
The Screaming at EY Has Stopped
Not about the new rebranding, mind you. God, no. They took out a full-page ad in the WSJ for crying out loud. This is a far more important development: Update to ice cream at EY Houston — none has been seen for weeks. The whole thing lasted a few days. Summer of fun, my ass. In […]
PwC Poaches a KPMG Partner and Issues a Press Release, Part VI
Today in KPMG is the PwC Triple-A team news, partner Erik Hansen has joined the P. Dubs Houston office as a risk assurances partner leading the firm’s Internal Audit Practice in the Oil and Gas Industry Sectors. I suppose it goes without saying that Mr. Hansen is pretty adept in the energy field, as well as auditing:
Hansen has served companies in the oil and gas industry on issues related to internal audit outsourcing and co-sourcing solutions, Sarbanes-Oxley assistance services, as well as other risk and control-related services. He has also served as an instructor in several KPMG training programs designed to provide partners and managers with the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective in the marketplace.
Enjoy Houston, Erik! Just keep your wits about you at the happy hours down there.
[via PwC]
Earlier: More posts on KPMG v. PwC.
Someone in KPMG’s Houston Office Looking to Unload Leftovers from the Fall Garage Sale
From the mailbag via H-town:
This was in our weekly newsletter in the Houston KPMG office. Must be trying to make up for that weak bonus:
Any takers? We’re sure you could haggle. Either make an offer below or get in touch and we’ll pass it along.
At Least One Grant Thornton Office Doesn’t Think It’s Too Early To Discuss Holiday Parties
From the mailbag, straight out of H-town:
Today, sept 1st, I got a save the date for the 2010 Christmas party. So yes GT Houston is having a Christmas party this year and apparently they are so excited about it, they wanted to let everyone know way in advance! Woot!
Is this some sort of retention tactic? Probably too little too late…..
Grant Thornton’s timing of this announcement is interesting on several counts. First, Christmaskuh was canceled by KPMG last year in early August. Since this is the first Holiday Ho down news we’ve received for any firm, this may be a good sign.
Second, our source’s suspicion is noted – is GT Houston employing a free booze morale booster here? Will the promise of catering, free hard liquor (at the very least beer and wine) and the opportunity for awkward sexual advances help rally that office back to indifference as opposed to downright morbidity? Oh and watch out for a certain PwC partner who might try to crash the party since he’ll likely be kept away from the booze at his own.
Discuss the early holiday cheer. And keep us informed about your firm’s/office’s holiday rager status.
The Top Ten Tax Procrastinating Cities
So capital market servants, filed your tax returns yet? No? Too busy, you say? Fine. We’ve all got our excuses. Personally, we’re holding out until Doug Shulman and/or Tim Geithner start returning our calls about their compliance efforts for 2009. Since we’ve been encouraged to not hold our breath on this, we’ve already filed our extension.
But where are most of the kings of putting off the 1040 until the last minute? The greatest concentration of “I’ll do it this weekend” types? The engineers of procrastination station?
Well if you guessed Houston not only are you correct but you’ve got more useless knowledge in your brain than Ken Jennings.
TurboTax’s rankings are based on the largest number of people that file between April 14 – 17. Here are your biggest putter-offers for 2009 (with previous year ranking in parents):
1. Houston – (#2)
2. Chicago – (#4)
3. New York – (#3)
4. Austin, Texas – (#11)
5. San Francisco – (#1)
6. Seattle – (#7)
7. San Diego – (#5)
8. Los Angeles – (#8)
9. Dallas – (#9)
10. Las Vegas – (#10)
This marks the fourth time that H-town has topped this list but we’ll be damned if we can figure out why. Does the humidity and obesity cause a hibernated state that we’re not aware of or is just good old fashioned, “we’re Texans and we hate taxes”? California too. What the hell is their problem?
In order to get to the bottom of this, we asked a friend (and strangely enough, a tax guru) who is a current Los Angeles resident and former resident of Houston to explain and she put in this way:
“Well.. Californians are selfish and think they can do whatever they want to get theirs…and pretty much Texans are the same, but they do it with a smile and an accent.”
Makes total sense now.
Free Tax Filing, Efile Taxes, Income Tax Returns – TurboTax.com
Houston, We Have a Problem [Tax Break]