Two Ex-KPMG Auditors Were Told By the SEC to Have a Seat On the Sidelines For a While
Two former KPMG auditors who worked on the ill-fated audit of a not-for-profit college agreed to having their wrists slapped by the SEC for their roles in the school’s collapse: The Securities and Exchange Commission today suspended two former KPMG auditors [Christopher Stanley and Jennifer Stewart] from practicing before the SEC in connection with settled […]
Accountants Behaving Badly: Insider Trader Settles with SEC, Embezzler Gets Jail Time, Maritime Thief
Plus, accountant’s tax fraud conviction upheld in court, and a Canadian accountant is banned by financial regulator. SEC charges biotechnology company CPA with insider trading [SEC] Jana Faith Kiena, CPA, a former contract accountant in the revenue recognition group at biotech company Illumina, will pay about $374,000 to settle insider trading charges for using confidential […]
SEC Fines and Bans Three Accounting Firm CPAs for Not Doing Their Jobs Very Well
Three CPAs from a New Jersey public accounting firm most of you probably have never even heard of got their wrists slapped by the SEC on Sept. 30 for signing off on the audits of an IT company’s financial statements, even though the company’s CEO and CFO were perpetuating a massive fraud. Schulman Lobel Zand […]
PwC Fined $7.9 Million By the SEC for Making Pretty Dumb and Obvious Independence Violations
About a month ago, we chided RSM US for being fined $950,000 by the SEC for getting caught providing non-audit services to audit clients, saying that a firm like RSM should’ve known better. But PwC got busted today by the SEC for also doing non-audit work for audit clients, which pretty much reinforces how shady […]
RSM US’s $950,000 Fine Is a Reminder That Performing Non-Audit Services for Audit Clients Can Get You Into Trouble
You’d think a firm like RSM US would know this by now, but guess not. The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged public accounting firm RSM US LLP with violations of the agency’s auditor independence rules in connection with more than 100 audit reports involving at least 15 audit clients. Yes, auditor independence is a […]
Ex-KPMG Partner’s Broker Probably Won’t Be Doing Any Insider Trading For a While
The last man standing in the KPMG insider trading case (the one not involving Scott London) has finally fallen. From the SEC: Today [Aug. 14], jurors in Atlanta federal court returned a verdict finding New Jersey securities broker Raymond J. Pirrello, Jr. liable for insider trading in advance of three merger and acquisition transactions. Pirrello […]
Ex-KPMG Partner Will Be Giving the SEC a Bag Full of Money
We have an update on one of the members of Caleb’s fantasy KPMG insider trading golf team. From Law360: With a trial looming, a Georgia federal judge has granted approval of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s settlement with a former KPMG LLP partner accused of tipping off a stockbroker about the upcoming acquisitions of […]
What Price Wrong-Doing? Sanctions Against KPMG Are Complicated
“Sell in May and go away” was an investors’ adage invoked as vacation strategy in a more genteel era. Returns in the summer were said to lag the rest of the year—and in any event, that’s how brokers justified their holiday cottages on the eastern seaboard. This year the maxim has twice failed my attempt […]
Which KPMG Scandal Is Worse: PCAOB ‘Steal the Exam’ or CPE Training Exam Cheating?
Since Monday when the SEC announced it had fined KPMG $50 million for not one but two scandals involving auditor misconduct at the firm, I’ve been thinking about which scandal is worse. Is it KPMG audit partners stealing confidential information from rogue PCAOB employees in order to better the firm’s audit inspection scores OR is […]
SEC Says $50 Million Fine For KPMG Is ‘Significant’ and ‘Appropriate’ For All That Cheating Going On
The SEC made official today the news that Dave Michaels of the Wall Street Journal broke late last week, announcing that KPMG will pay $50 million to settle allegations that former partners “stole the test” by using confidential information that was being fed to them by a PCAOB insider to improve the firm’s performance on […]
$50 Million Fine SEC Is Reportedly Giving KPMG Over PCAOB Scandal Isn’t Big Enough
Dave Michaels of the Wall Street Journal broke some huge news late last night about a huge fine the SEC could levy against KPMG later this month because of several former partners’ involvement in one of the biggest U.S. accounting scandals in recent years—stealing secret audit inspection information from the PCAOB. KPMG LLP is preparing […]
Accounting Fraud Watch: Deloitte Malaysia Office Raided, Ex-Autonomy CFO Jailed, GT Advanced Technologies Settles
Here’s some news on accounting frauds and scandals from the last couple of weeks that you might have missed. Malaysian police raid Deloitte office for 1MDB-related documents: sources [Reuters] Even though this is more scandal than fraud, whenever a Big 4 firm gets raided by police, we’ll fit it in somehow. This happened today: Malaysian […]
Accounting Fraud Watch: Samsung Bioepis, Celadon Group, More on BT Italy
Catching you up on the latest fraud happenings in the world of accounting. Two Samsung employees arrested over alleged cover-up [Financial Times] Two executives of Samsung’s biopharmaceutical unit were arrested earlier this week on suspicion of destroying evidence to cover up an alleged $3.9 billion accounting fraud. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in South […]
Accounting Fraud Watch: Jumio Founder, Former College Controller, Ex-Roadrunner Execs
We arrived late to a couple accounting fraud settlement parties thrown by the SEC recently. All the Lagunitas and buffalo chicken dip were gone, and we were stuck drinking Busch Light and munching on carrot sticks. But we’ll still recap what happened at these shindigs anyway. Silicon Valley startup Jumio’s ex-CEO settles SEC fraud charges […]
Three Ex-BDO USA Accountants Will Be Sitting on the Sidelines For a While Due to Really Bad Auditing Decisions
Coming off the heels of a horrible Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspection report, in which 16 of 24 audits inspected in 2016 were found to have deficiencies, BDO USA is again in the news for all the wrong reasons. Three former BDO accountants were suspended by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 12 […]
EY Runs Afoul of Auditor Independence Rules Thanks to Sporting Events, Office Romance
One of the keys to being a successful partner in a large accounting firm is client management. If you’re a tax or advisory partner, this is pretty simple: you wine, you dine, you do the work with a smile on your face. The client is happy. You are a good partner. Audit partners don’t have […]