EY’s Landlord Didn’t Pay the Mortgage on the Downtown LA Office Building
Before we get into the situation, please note the issue discussed here is not EY’s fault. Rather, the office tower bearing the firm’s name at 725 South Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles has entered receivership after asset management company Brookfield stopped making payments on its debt in April. Commercial real estate firm Colliers has […]
Los Angeles Might Outsource Its 211 Phone Service to Deloitte and People Are Not Happy
Deloitte Consulting might be picking up a new client: the downtrodden of Los Angeles County. ABC7 reports: Los Angeles County’s nonprofit “211LA” hotline to health, human and social services is on the verge of being turned over to a private company, pending a vote by the county’s Board of Supervisors. The supervisors are slated to […]
Man Who Was Arrested For Repeatedly Stabbing a Hiker Near Los Angeles Apparently Works at BDO
We got a tip the other day that said an employee of one of the top accounting firms in the U.S. got into some trouble with the law last week: Look into the stabbing from Altedena on May 29th. The alleged suspect, Kristopher Brown works as a Senior for BDO Los Angeles. He’s currently in […]
Los Angeles Accountants Sound Like a Content Bunch, Minus the Traffic, Of Course
A couple of weeks back, we surveyed Los Angeles accountants to find what there is to know about working and living there. If you’re an L.A. accountant, you can still take the survey if you haven’t already, but for now we’ll share what we’ve learned. Here’s an overview: 53 percent of the respondents who work […]
Los Angeles Accountants, We Want to Hear From You
The publishing overlords who run this here site would like to survey Los Angeles accountants. If that’s you, kindly take this short survey on working and living in the L.A. area. If you’re not in the L.A. area but are in Southern California region, go ahead and take the survey. It’s harmless, plus you’ll be […]
City of Los Angeles Blames Technology, Retired Auditors for Missing $43 Million
Officials in cash-strapped Los Angeles have uncovered almost $43 million that was just sitting in a Department of Transportation account unbeknownst to the city, prompting them to wonder if there's more magic money stashed away: The discovery of $42.6 million will be a welcome one-time infusion into next year's budget, officials said, but has left […]
SingerLewak Sued By Financially Troubled Former Client For Failing To Detect Fraud
Oh geez, not this again. When will clients just get over it? Here's the bad news for SingerLewak coming out of SoCal: The financially troubled Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission is suing its former auditor for more than $11 million, alleging that it failed to detect errors in financial statements between 2007 and 2011, a […]
PwC’s New Los Angeles Office to Have Walking Workstations That Will Mostly Collect Dust
PwC is moving into some new office space in Los Angeles next spring and, naturally, everyone is pretty stoked. There's nothing like trading in your taupe cubicle walls for some new taupe cubicle walls. But with any luck, the bathrooms will be equipped with those toilets that sound like a jet engine when they're flushed. […]
Recently Deceased ‘Accounting Legend’ Kenneth Leventhal’s Simple Explanation for His Career Choice
Last week Adrienne asked all of you to explain, to the best of your ability, why you became accountants. There were a myriad of answers given, which she opted to highlight in her post on Monday. While many of them were fine answers (if not a little verbose), they pale in comparison to the reasoning […]
Happy 100th Birthday PwC Los Angeles!
Things sure have changed quite a bit since 1911 when it was just Price Waterhouse (what do we think the logo looked like?) and no one gave a shit whether working moms had a great place to work. Possibly in an effort to make up for those less diverse-sensitive years, the firm is celebrating their century in L.A. with “100 Years of Service, 100 Ways of Giving Back.”
P. Dubbersteins will spend a few hours sitting in god-awful traffic on their way to two dozen community organizations to do various nice things. And in case you feel compelled to share your story, the firm will let you do that too.
PwC has also built an intranet site with the theme, “What’s your LA story?” to generate excitement and internal buzz about the anniversary. It provides a centralized resource of information about the campaign and serves as another vehicle for the firm’s LA partners and staff to review and sign up for projects. A unique feature of the site is a page allowing people to share personal stories of how they have helped in the community, fostering a feeling of shared commitment and inspiring others to participate.
Sharing stories about how you’ve made a difference in your community is cool and all but I’m sure many current and former PwC L.A. employees have tales from the last 100 years that are just as interesting but fall within a different narrative. Maybe there was a partner at the Oscars who somehow ended up in the arms of Sophia Loren or maybe he got bombed with Jack Nicholson at the Vanity Fair party only to be found later, naked and passed out on the side of Mulholland Drive.
Or maybe you just recall some inter-office exploits that were especially memorable. The point is, PwC L.A., this is a time for reflection. So if you got memories (fond or not so much) about your time there, feel free to share them below.
What Do We Make of the Headcount in Deloitte’s Los Angeles Office?
Our tipster had this to say, “No wonder they are getting rid of PSW [Ed. note: he/she is referring to this], there are more partners than junior staff! Where the hell is the leverage model? This is beyond completely ridiculous.”
Posted on the Green Dot’s internal interwebs:
Did you know?
The Los Angeles office represents 55% of the PSW region in terms of headcount:
Los Angeles Headcount Partners, Principals, and Directors 195 Sr. Managers and Managers 407 Senior/Senior Consultants 304 Staff Consultants 188 Junior Staff/Analysts 141 Client Service, Admin, and Other Support 271 TOTAL 1506
Technically, the combination of “Staff Consultants” and “Junior Staff” exceeds the PPD number although that but that puts the ratio of 1.69 staff for every PPD. I’m no expert but that could be considered low. It’s safe to say there are a few big engagements in L.A. that demand more than 1.69 staff people which probably leaves the small jobs shorthanded. Anyone in Deloitte L.A. (or anywhere else for that matter) feeling the pain because of this? Let us know in the comments.
(UPDATE) Ex-Hospital CFO Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion, Health Care Fraud
In dubious CFO news, Vincent Rubio, the former financial chief at Tustin Hospital and Medical Center, agreed to plead guilty yesterday for paying kickbacks to “marketers” who recruited homeless people from the Skid Row area of Los Angeles.
Rubio pleaded guilty to health care fraud and tax evasion; he was the fifth person to charged in the investigation that is still ongoing. He faces fifteen years in prison After the homeless people were treated, the hospital billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for unnecessary treatments.
The AP piece doesn’t have much to it so we’re got to wondering all sorts of things like: A) Who discovered this fraud? Was it — gasp — the auditors? B) what were these unnecessary treatments? We’re these displaced individuals getting checked for hernias or less intrusive procedures? C) how much was Medicare and Medi-Cal charged? Are we talking Madoff-esque numbers? D) When the homeless were finished up at the hospital did they strap them to a rickshaw and send them back out in the streets or did they try to help them for real?
We called the hospital to find out more and we were connected to a spokesperson, who told us that she could not comment on the matter. She informed us that our message would be relayed to the hospital’s President, James Young. At the time of posting, we had not heard back from him. We’ll update this post with any comment or further information.
Ex-hospital CFO pleads guilty in homeless scam [AP via SF Chronicle]
UPDATE Friday, February 12th: We received the press release from Pacific Health, the owner of the Hospital:
February 11, 2010
Press Release
Pacific Health Corporation learned of the allegation that a third party made improper payments to Vince Rubio on November 30, 2006. Upon receipt of the allegation, Pacific Health Corporation contacted its outside counsel to investigate the allegation.
Within one day of the allegation being received, Pacific Health Corporation took employment action in the matter, placing Mr. Rubio on leave. Within one week, Pacific Health Corporation terminated the employment of Mr. Rubio.
After the completion of the its internal review and taking the employment action, Pacific Health reported the matter to law enforcement officials. That took place in early 2007.