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by Creative Weblogging on April 1, 2006
We are launching our survey contests today - your chance to win one of three great Hardcover Books.
The first book is "The World is flat - brief history of the twenty-first century" writte...
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Ethics
by leon on March 31, 2006
A sensational case in Australia with reports that the corporate cops at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission have filed a civil suit against Citigroup alleging insider trading and conf...
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Accounting
by leon on March 31, 2006
So is the US Government guilty of "prosecutorial misconduct" in the KPMG tax shelter case? Certainly that's the line in this report quoting Stanley Arkin, an attorney representing one of...
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risk
by leon on March 30, 2006
With researchers into avian flu claiming only partial success with the latest batch of vaccine (it works only half the time and only when given in big doses), Mercer Human Resource Consulting has put ...
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corporate crime
by leon on March 30, 2006
Check this Chicago Tribune account about the legal tussle over newspaper tycoon Conrad black's papers.When the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit alleging Black and his No.2 ...
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SOX
by leon on March 29, 2006
With material weakness and whistleblowers identified as the two key issues in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley world, it's interesting to read this report in Inc.com about how some companies are using soft...
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risk
by leon on March 29, 2006
Last month, I blogged on a bizarre series of corporate cock-ups, including one where Ernst & Young had gone and lost a laptop containing confidential information of its customers. The list of cust...
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SOX
by leon on March 28, 2006
With restatements booming as never before, a new study suggests we are seeing the emergence of "serial restaters".According to the Glass Lewis & Co study, of nearly 2000 public US compan...
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SOX
by leon on March 27, 2006
If success is about getting what you want, happiness is about wanting what you get.With that in mind, it's worth checking this provocative warning from Thomas A. Basilo, chairman & CEO of With...
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Accounting
by leon on March 27, 2006
The biggest winners out of Sarbanes-Oxley are the accountants. Back in December, I blogged on how the beancounters were cleaning up.The trend has continued with the starting salaries for accounting gr...
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strategy
by leon on March 27, 2006
Everywhere you look, the bookshelves are getting crowded with modern management books. Some are good, some are just full of platitudinous crap and just a waste of trees. Pretentious and badly written,...
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SOX
by leon on March 25, 2006
With Sarbanes-Oxley now subject to vocal attacks and lawsuits, Paul Sarbanes has come out defending the legislation, saying the critics have it all wrong. In particular, he slates the claim that it wa...
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Ethics
by leon on March 24, 2006
More US employers are doing background checks on prospective employees, according to a report. The number of checks are up 12 per cent. The worrying news is that half the checks into education and car...
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Accounting
by leon on March 23, 2006
So all firms are supposed to be transparent under the new corporate governance regime?Yeah right, think again!It seems that some are forced to be more transparent than others. Like the Big Four accoun...
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corporate reputation
by leon on March 22, 2006
Coca-Cola, the world's most famous and powerful brand, is under attack from anti-poverty campaigners, including the War on Want group in Britain.Plenty of action in India. According to a report in...
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SOX
by leon on March 22, 2006
Big US companies say sarbanes-oxley compliance costs seem to be declining with 94 per cent expecting them to either remain the same, or decrease for 2006, according to the latest Business Roundtable ...
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Compliance
by leon on March 21, 2006
Last month, I blogged on the question of whether quarterly earnings forecasts were about transparency or whether they were just a fool's game that just encouraged appalling short-term-ism.Another ...
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SOX
by leon on March 20, 2006
With smaller companies expecting some relief from Sarbanes-Oxley next month, there was some debate on the issue at last week's special session held at the University of California-Berkeley. You ca...
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markets
by leon on March 20, 2006
Yes, it's scary. But since last week's entry on bird flu, it's been pointed out to me that the prospect of a bird flu pandemic has been very good for some. Check this report on US Secretar...
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risk
by leon on March 17, 2006
With bird flu outbreaks being confirmed in five countries and with warnings that it will reach the USA by autumn, the warnings are coming in for companies to review their insurance policies and Human ...
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Accounting
by leon on March 16, 2006
So Fannie Mae is again embroiled in serious accounting Doodoo. And remember Berkshire Hathaway's exposure to General Re's derivatives business which in last year's pullout, cost Berkshire ...
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corporate governance
by leon on March 16, 2006
Investment managers around the world will be focusing more on corporate governance, environmental management and globalisation when working out where to park their money, according to a new Mercer Inv...
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SOX
by leon on March 15, 2006
With reports suggesting that small public companies expect they will soon be exempt from the more stringent requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has come out bagging...
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Compliance
by leon on March 15, 2006
Merrill Lynch has been pinged $2.5 million for failing to promptly provide the Securities and Exchange Commission with e-mail messages that the regulators had been chasing for 16 months. According to ...
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corporate governance
by leon on March 14, 2006
It's easy to think whistleblowers have become the new protected species in this corporate governance climate. Remember back in December 2002 when Time magazine honored the three women who blew the...
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SOX
by leon on March 14, 2006
Back in December, I blogged on Sarbanes-Oxley turning London into the market of choice for companies going public.The trend has continued into 2006 with the announcement from New York-based payment pr...
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corporate crime
by leon on March 11, 2006
Here's a test for scams: does it sound too good to be true? If the answer's yes, then it is.But this is a good time for scamsters, with baby boomers looking for a place to park their money as ...
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boards of directors
by leon on March 10, 2006
Wiretaps on mobsters are one thing. But the US Justice Department's antitrust division will be extending them into boardrooms under the Antitrust Investigative Improvements Act of 2005 introduced ...
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SOX
by leon on March 9, 2006
Sarbanes-Oxley expenditure represents less than 25 cents out of every dollar spent on compliance, according to AMR Research. Areas like Security and Exchange Commission requirements, document retentio...
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corporate crime
by leon on March 9, 2006
It was a sensational day with disgraced numbers man Andrew Fastow's testimony that Ken Lay knew all about Enron's troubles, pointing to a conspiracy to defraud investors.Fastow told the court ...
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corporate crime
by leon on March 8, 2006
DANNY DALTON: "Corruption ain't nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have la...
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Accounting
by leon on March 8, 2006
It's official:accounting is a dirty job.A University of Arizona study has found that accounting is one of germ-laden jobs around, second only to teaching. Something to do with the state of their d...
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corporate governance
by leon on March 7, 2006
My how things change! It wasn't that long ago that CFOs were treated like rockstars. But with Enron's former go-to man Andrew Fastow taking the stand this week , the Washington Post reminds us...
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SOX
by leon on March 7, 2006
In another development for the work in progress known as Sarbanes-Oxley, co-author of the legislation Michael Oxley says regulators have the legal authority to wind the act back to help smaller compan...
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Ethics
by leon on March 6, 2006
Under attack from unions, activists and squeezed suppliers, Wal-Mart is on the offensive. First, Wal-Mart announced that former United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young will be the pub...
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Ethics
by leon on March 4, 2006
Author Charles Fleetham writes about the difference between ethical decisions and offers a guide on how to make ethical decisions in moments of crisis. You'll find that here.I can't agree with...
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SOX
by leon on March 2, 2006
Proponents of Sarbanes-Oxley argue that the compliance costs are justified because it results in greater trust from investors, and that underpins the health of the market.But with moves to unwind SOX ...
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corporate crime
by leon on March 1, 2006
With the sensational testimony from former top Enron executive David Delainey that his old boss Jeffrey Skilling approved a ploy to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses rather than reveal th...
