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Accounting
by leon on May 31, 2007
Two current and two former partners of Ernst & Young have been charged with tax fraud conspiracy involving fraudulent tax shelters, reports the New York Times.Ernst & Young, which has been und...
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executive pay
by leon on May 31, 2007
All over the world, politicians are starting to pick up on it. Ordinary people are becoming increasingly agitated over the way the bosses are getting what's seen as more than their fair share of t...
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Ethics
by leon on May 30, 2007
Since its inception a few years ago, the producers of reality tv have gone out of their way to shock audiences around the world. And acting unethically comes with the territory.Last year, there was th...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 30, 2007
siemens new chief Peter Loescher has his work cut out. German's biggest and most venerated company, now embroiled in scandal over bribes and under-the-table payments, has for the first time brough...
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risk
by leon on May 30, 2007
Climate change might be the most serious environmental risk facing society and insurers but there are many other big ones ahead, according to a new report.The report, Insuring for Sustainability, put ...
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SOX
by leon on May 29, 2007
Earlier this year, I did a blog entry looking at how Sarbanes-Oxley was close to useless in protecting whistleblowers.So how do solve the problem? One school of thought is to provide financial incenti...
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corporate governance
by leon on May 29, 2007
CEO turnover seems to have peaked but boards are becoming increasingly ruthless and are more prepared to give bosses the chop, according to a new survey.The latest Booz Allen Hamilton study into CEO t...
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SOX
by leon on May 28, 2007
After years of pressure, chest-beating and hand-wringing from business, not to mention heat coming from Congress and the Bush administration, the board that polices auditors has finally relaxed its co...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 26, 2007
Earlier this year, I wrote that cyber crime and cross-border fraud were among the top 10 business risks. Pretty much the result of greater technological complexity and more cross-border transactions i...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 24, 2007
After weeks of argument over filings, the Conrad Black trial turns juicy with revelations about the spending habits of the former media mogul and his wife Barbara Amiel Black.Take for example the disc...
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corporate reputation
by leon on May 24, 2007
In light of recent scandals, Fortune's Jia Lynn Ya reminds us how Johnson & Johnson's response to the 1982 Tylenol poisonings is the gold standard for crisis management.James Burke, then C...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 23, 2007
So Richard Scrushy, who in 2005 managed to beat a fraud rap and potential 600 years in the slammer, has now been pinged for bribing former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. He now faces 30 years in jail...
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litigation
by leon on May 23, 2007
In a global economy, it's no surprise that international institutions are filing more class actions in the US. And the trend is expected to continue according to an ISS report Accountability goes ...
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Accounting
by leon on May 23, 2007
I have looked at the high level of turnover for chief financial officers and the implications it has for the strategic planning companies here.As I said at the time, it could be a huge problem because...
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corporate governance
by leon on May 22, 2007
Much has been said about shareholder rights to exercise their views. But companies are not democracies and management has enormous power to get its way when it comes to pulling in votes for issues lik...
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Ethics
by leon on May 22, 2007
Earlier this year, I looked at the way Starbucks had become embroiled in a dispute with ethiopia over Ethiopia's ownership claims over premium coffee brands.Starbuck's carefully designed ethic...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 22, 2007
The trial of Conrad Black reached a fascinating stage last week with the cross-examination of Black's former partner in crime turned prosecution star witness David Radler. His testimony was make-o...
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Ethics
by leon on May 19, 2007
With Paul Wolfowitz heading for the exit door, the questions continue about whether the world bank will recover. This institution has been rocked by battles over Wolfowitz's management style, his ...
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risk
by leon on May 19, 2007
Internal auditors seem to agree they're taking risk more seriously and acknowledge that huge resources are being thrown into compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley. But they're not bein...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 19, 2007
The massive sentences handed out to the likes of WorldCom's Bernie Ebbers and Enron's Jeff Skilling have sparked plenty of debate about whether the punishment fits the crime.Writing in The Atl...
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litigation
by leon on May 17, 2007
Earlier this year, I did an entry looking at dell's accounting problems and how it had run into with the Securities and Exchange Commission.At the time, I suggested that Dell's accounting head...
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SOX
by leon on May 17, 2007
Mixed news coming out from Financial Executives International showing that Section 404 compliance costs with Sarbanes-Oxley are headed south. Well, kind of.According to the press release, total averag...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 16, 2007
Last year I wrote about corporate delinquents.Basically, I argued that unless we were talking about one individual with his or her hand in the till, most corporate fraud involved a delinquent communit...
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Ethics
by leon on May 16, 2007
When it comes to selecting companies for business ethics, corporate beauty contests are now all the rage.Which is what caught my attention when Ethisphere, one of the better ethics journals around, ra...
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Accounting
by leon on May 15, 2007
How good are analysts at detecting accounting fraud? Not that great, according to new research.A joint study by Julie Cotter from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, and Susan M. Young...
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corporate governance
by leon on May 15, 2007
The preoccupation with independent directors under Sarbanes-Oxley is misguided, says Wayne State University law professor Erica Beecher-Monas. After all, Enron and WorldCom had independent directors a...
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Accounting
by leon on May 15, 2007
Some stories are just too good to ignore.The former owner of Penthouse magazine's publisher has agreed to settle civil accounting fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission, accordi...
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Ethics
by leon on May 15, 2007
Earlier this year, I did a piece looking at the the scandal about Iraq's oil production and the missing revenues.The problem in Iraq, as I pointed out at the time, is that four years into the US o...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 13, 2007
Last week, I talked here and here about how insider trading was becoming more of a problem.Now, as if on cue, we have the extraordinary story of two Morgan Stanley executives have been charged with in...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 11, 2007
The Siemens bribery scandal continues to deepen. The company is in the unusual position of seeing its reputation getting trashed and at the same time, its profits are rising.So are Siemens' woes a...
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Ethics
by leon on May 11, 2007
The odds of world bank president Paul Wolfowitz resigning are getting shorter, according to figures from intrade.com published in the Village Voice.US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has come out in d...
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Ethics
by leon on May 10, 2007
This year's Berkshire Hathaway AGM, usually known as the "Woodstock for capitalists", did not pass without some uncomfortable moments.Like when Warren Buffett was taken to task over his ...
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Accounting
by leon on May 10, 2007
MBA students expect the lowest amount of pay from accounting, auditing and tax work, according to a Fortune survey.According to the survey (which you can check out in full here), MBA students had the ...
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markets
by leon on May 9, 2007
The bizarre failure of the private equity bid for Qantas has raised a lot of questions and destroyed quite a few reputations. Starting with the qantas board, led by chairman Margaret Jackson, and the ...
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markets
by leon on May 9, 2007
Earlier this week, I asked the question whether insider trading was back. That was after a Credit Suisse investment banker was arrested for dirty deals involving the $45 billion TXU buyout.Now it cont...
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Ethics
by leon on May 9, 2007
Providing some sort of work life balance not only gives you better-adjusted employees, it might also result in a more ethical workplace, according to a new survey reported here.According to the study,...
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Ethics
by leon on May 8, 2007
Last year I did a post on research showing that business school students are more likely to cheat than students in other graduate programs.Now we have news that MBA students at Duke University have be...
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executive pay
by leon on May 7, 2007
In the past, I have written about Apple's environmental issues and the way it has handled the backdating of options.Now Apple has announced it's boosting its green credentials by reducing or e...
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litigation
by leon on May 7, 2007
Fascinating to watch the developments flow from the revelations in the Los Angeles Times last month about the legal dispute between writer Clive Cussler and Crusader Entertainment over that dog of a m...
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markets
by leon on May 7, 2007
Questions are now rising whether insider trading is now more of a problem following the arrest of a Credit Suisse Group banker on charges of illegally leaking confidential information on nine deals, i...
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executive pay
by leon on May 5, 2007
The Verizon shareholder vote that for the "say on pay" too close to call and the stakes are high.A vote for the proposal is likely to boost the efforts of Democrats in Congress to pass a law...
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executive pay
by leon on May 4, 2007
The gender gap in pay is highlighted by Cathy Arnst in her BusinessWeek blog. "One year out of college, women working full time earn 80% percent of what men earn. Ten years later, women earn 69% ...
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Compliance
by leon on May 3, 2007
IT governance disasters are everywhere. IT projects run off the rails, a bank's ATMs might be taken out of service because of early release software obtained from a very pushy vendor, benefit paym...
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Compliance
by leon on May 3, 2007
In the lead-up to AMD's anti-trust case against Intel, the two firms are at it hammer and tongs, according to this news report.Lawyers tell me much of this case might well come down to emails rele...
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Accounting
by leon on May 3, 2007
Big four accounting firm Ernst & young has been accused of signing off on audits without putting together the evidence to support its opinion.A Public Company Accounting Oversight Board report fou...
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SOX
by leon on May 2, 2007
At the end of last year, we had the Hank Paulson-backed Interim Report of the Committee for Capital Markets Regulation recommending watering down Sarbanes-Oxley. I looked at that here.Then earlier thi...
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corporate governance
by leon on May 2, 2007
The story about the resignation of BP chief executive Lord Browne has rattled the business world.Lord Browne is not the first, and no doubt he won't be the last person destroyed by the British tab...
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Ethics
by leon on May 1, 2007
This year, we've seen Siemens being investigated for graft and corruption and Chiquita Brands getting fined $25 million slinging cash to paramilitaries in Colombia.And we're only four months i...
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Ethics
by leon on May 1, 2007
Last year, I looked at the rise of the universal owner. These are the institutions and pension funds that have holdings across the entire economy. Because their holdings encompass most sectors, market...
