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executive pay
by leon on September 1, 2006
So far, the wave of lawsuits and official action arising out of the stock options backdating scams has focused on the public companies that had provided the benefits.But questions are now being asked ...
Read more of Are lawyers the next backdating target?
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corporate governance
by leon on August 31, 2006
The alpha male boss seems to be part of corporate life. The strong leader is always in demand. Witness the popularity of the Donald Trump Apprentice TV series which sends out the wrong message on how ...
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risk
by leon on August 31, 2006
What are the big issues and risks confronting business today?Hard to go past an excellent summary of the 25 forces in this piece The Big Issues
from my good friend David James.So what are some of the ...
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markets
by leon on August 31, 2006
In between the porn, the hilarious solicitations from supposedly willing Russian chicks and ads touting everything from Viagra to organ enlargements, there's been a rush of spam mails telling the ...
Read more of Spam pumps and dumps penny dreadfuls
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litigation
by leon on August 29, 2006
The court battle between Australian timber giant Gunns and wilderness campaigners has become a textbook example for companies around the world on how NOT to deal with stakeholders. Gunns has locked it...
Read more of Lawyers, Gunns and Money: The new McLibel?
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corporate governance
by leon on August 28, 2006
What are the six tell-tale signs that you are working for a boss with an ego that casts a shadow?What out for the prominence of the boss's photo in the annual report; his (and it usually is a male...
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markets
by leon on August 28, 2006
Boom markets and illicit trading always go together. So it's no surprise that there are signs of illicit trading ahead of company announcements, as revealed by The New York Times.The paper reports...
Read more of The inside story
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corporate crime
by leon on August 27, 2006
Former Enron chief Ken Lay might be dead but that hasn't stopped the University of missouri forging ahead with plans to fill a specially-endowed professorship in his name.The Kenneth L. Lay Chair ...
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Accounting
by leon on August 26, 2006
Just had a chance to catch up with Jim Turley, the global chief of accounting giant Ernst & young.Here's what he had to say about Sarbanes-Oxley, compliance, remuneration for beancounters, the...
Read more of Interview with Jim Turley, Ernst & Young global chairman and CEO
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SOX
by leon on August 26, 2006
The debate continues around whether SOX is driving companies away from the US market, and whether more are listing overseas because of SOX-related costs.The latest pitch comes from the conservative US...
Read more of SOX and the foreign affair
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corporate crime
by leon on August 24, 2006
So Frank Quattrone, once the poster child of Wall Street greed, is back in business again. And no wonder he's been smiling the last few days!The guy who had been charged with hindering an investig...
Read more of Quattrone's deferred deal: more on the way?
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Ethics
by leon on August 24, 2006
Producer Mark Burnett has turned into the television business into an amoral, ethics-free zone.The producers of Survivor: Cook Islands are dividing competitors into four tribes: whites, blacks, Asians...
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risk
by leon on August 23, 2006
Mistakes happen. The question is what do corporations do when stuff hits the fan. Do they investigate what went wrong, or do they become the corporate equivalent of the three wise monkeys with a hear-...
Read more of Corporations that don't want to know
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SOX
by leon on August 22, 2006
Smaller public companies are bemoaning the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley but many closely held private companies are adopting it as a system of governance, reports The Wall Street Journal.The WSJ details s...
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risk
by leon on August 22, 2006
Four out of five US companies have lost at least one laptop containing sensitive information over the past year. Indeed only one in 10 companies say there was no sensitive or confidential info on the ...
Read more of Lost laptop lunacy
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corporate crime
by leon on August 21, 2006
Two years ago, Federal prosecutors landed a big fish when Frank Quattrone, a former star investment banker, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for hindering a government investigation into how Credi...
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SOX
by leon on August 21, 2006
Chief executive officers of more than 200 New York Stock Exchange-listed companies say Sarbanes-Oxley has created problems and opportunities. While smaller companies say Sarbanes-Oxley is killing them...
Read more of SOX: red tape and opportunities
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corporate crime
by leon on August 19, 2006
A judge has relied on a legal technicality to set aside the March conviction in the first corporate fraud case to emerge from Iraq. The fraud has cost US taxpayers millions of dollars.What signal does...
Read more of A legal victory for war profiteers and corporate looters
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SOX
by leon on August 19, 2006
Earlier this week I blogged on how chief financial officers were focused on the money from the next job.One of the big reasons for that is Sarbanes-Oxley. Indeed, SOX is now the big money spinner for ...
Read more of SOX brings in bucks
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corporate crime
by leon on August 18, 2006
Former media tycoon Conrad Black has been hit with new charges in the US probe into the alleged looting of his corporate empire.This time, it's for tax evasion, according to the latest reports.Bla...
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corporate crime
by leon on August 17, 2006
Psst, want to buy Ken Lay's Mercedes 600 SL?At $25,000, it's an absolute steal. How appropriate is that? You can pick it up eBay.Indeed, you can check out more of the Enron goodies, everything...
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Accounting
by leon on August 16, 2006
Forget the quality of the work environment and corporate culture! Career opportunities? Forget it!!!What chief financial officers really want is a steady stream of money, according to a Robert Half Fi...
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Ethics
by leon on August 16, 2006
How effective is law enforcement in stopping corruption?Not that much, if a new study is anything to go by, according to a report in the Financial Times.The researchers looked at parking violations by...
Read more of Tickets for corruption
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Accounting
by leon on August 16, 2006
So people trust beancounters more than the US President.Last month, it was revealed that less than half the population believe that accountants had great or considerable prestige and about one in 10 s...
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Ethics
by leon on August 15, 2006
Interesting times at Boeing.Its chief executive James McNerney has vowed to build a strong ethics culture at the ethically-challenged aircraft market and defence contractor.Boeing has discovered how m...
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executive pay
by leon on August 14, 2006
Last week was a big week in the US for options backdating scandals.Former executives of Brocade, former president and CEO Gregory Reyes and former vice president of human resources Stephanie Jensen, w...
Read more of The war on options scams
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corporate crime
by leon on August 14, 2006
With lawyers now moving to clear Ken Lay's not-so-good name and record - potentially derailing any civil claims against Enron - prosecutors are now playing hardball.They have counter-attacked, fil...
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corporate crime
by leon on August 12, 2006
In the latest instalment in the Conrad Black saga, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve has ordered fomer media magnate Conrad Black to cough up $1 million in cash to further secure a $20 million bond with...
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Accounting
by leon on August 11, 2006
With former vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman launching his independent campaign, the impact of the war on US politics and the Democrats is now clear. The vote was clearly a shot across the bo...
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executive pay
by leon on August 11, 2006
Pay rises for company directors have slowed down as boardrooms absorb the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley and other corporate governance changes, according to a new report.The Mercer Human resource Consultin...
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corporate crime
by leon on August 10, 2006
And so we have come to this. Lawyers for the late Ken Lay have commenced proceedings to try and clear the former Enron's chairman's name, reports the Houston Chronicle.Lay, who died in July of...
Read more of Clearing Ken Lay's record
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SOX
by leon on August 10, 2006
No surprises that the Securities and Exchange Commission has finally come out with its relief package providing smaller public companies and most foreign private issuers an extension on complying with...
Read more of Some relief from SOX red tape. Step one?
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boards of directors
by leon on August 9, 2006
The gene pool of directors is shallow. Companies are now under pressure to recruit from a broader base. But how do you train directors? Apart from having the right skills, what do you need to do to ge...
Read more of Boot camp for directors
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by leon on August 9, 2006
Back in June I blogged on how the ExxonMobil-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute was running ads countering the claims about climate change made in the film An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore...
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Accounting
by leon on August 8, 2006
The skills shortage for accountants is now a global problem.There are now eight key markets looking for accountants: Australia, Canada, China, Eastern Europe, India,Japan, United Kingdom and United St...
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Accounting
by leon on August 7, 2006
In an age where governments are introducing rules to make corporations more accountable, it's extraordinary that government bureaucrats won't play by the same rules.It's an issue being dis...
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Accounting
by leon on August 7, 2006
For a profession that likes to think of itself as transparent, auditors might have some way to go. Particularly when it comes to companies revealing to the market why they have dismissed or changed an...
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corporate crime
by leon on August 5, 2006
Well, not that much of a mystery actually. Federal prosecutors are trying to find out more about the "apparent free flow of millions of dollars" to former press baron Conrad Black from his w...
Read more of Conrad Black and the mysterious cash flows
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SOX
by leon on August 5, 2006
Congressman Tom Feeney is telling everyone who cares to listen that Sarbanes-Oxley is driving companies away from the United States and that foreign companies that once would have listed in the US, th...
Read more of SOX on IPOs
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SOX
by leon on August 4, 2006
Just days after new US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson came out swinging, dropping the giant hint that it was time to unwind Sarbanes-Oxley, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox...
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corporate governance
by leon on August 3, 2006
What are the emerging trends in corporate governance? Will the Securities and Exchange Commission's new disclosure rules stop the lavish pay for senior executives? What impact has Sarbanes-Oxley h...
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litigation
by leon on August 3, 2006
Back in June, I blogged on how the backdating scandal would turn into a lawyers' picnic.Sure enough, the litigation is gathering pace.A growing number of companies are under investigation but the ...
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SOX
by leon on August 2, 2006
In his first speech as Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson has dropped a none-too subtle hint about unwinding aspects of Sarbanes-Oxley, claiming the "pendulum'' of corporate governance has ...
Read more of Paulson and SOX: Has the pendulum swung too far?
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Ethics
by leon on August 2, 2006
Why is it so hard to encourage whistleblowers? Maybe it's because fear appears to be a feature of modern working life.That seems to be the conclusion we can draw from a Harvard Business School stu...
Read more of Fear in the workplace
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Compliance
by leon on August 1, 2006
The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics and the CFA Centre for Financial Market Integrity have issued a joint report calling on companies to stop giving quarterly earnings forecasts.The...
Read more of War on guidance
