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corporate governance
by leon on June 1, 2008
Hardly surprising but Exxon Mobil's leaders have defeated the descendents of Standard Oil's founder John D Rockefeller. For anyone wanting a bit of history, Exxon and Mobil were the bastard c...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 30, 2008
Totally irrepressible!Conrad Black has settled down into the slammer quite well. He is now taking american history classes in prison. His students include prison staff and, from all reports, he is dr...
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strategy
by leon on May 30, 2008
Michael Dell sure has his work cut out turning his company around.Earlier this week, Dell was found guilty of false advertising and fraud. It came amidst enormous complaints about the way Dell went a...
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SOX
by leon on May 29, 2008
Tough being a chief financial officer these days, post-Sarbanes-Oxley.It seems that CFOs of firms that have had to restate their numbers are more likely to be shown the door and a university of arkan...
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markets
by leon on May 29, 2008
Oil prices have dropped slightly but it's not over yet. The oil price will continue to rise simply because there is an issue of supply constraints biting against soaring global demand.Certainly t...
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markets
by leon on May 28, 2008
US soldiers have put their lives in Iraq. Their reward: foreclosure.Foreclosures in US towns where soldiers live are increasing at almost four times the national average, according to data compiled b...
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Compliance
by leon on May 28, 2008
Compliance officers are cashing in on the ever-growing pile of laws and regulations confronting companies around the world. Some are now earning well into the seven figures, reports Michael Grebb at ...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 27, 2008
Shades of Hewlett-Packard's pretexting scandal two years ago. But this time in Germany.Deutsche Telekom has announced an investigation into a systemic spying operation to track calls between top ...
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Accounting
by leon on May 27, 2008
With more pressure on companies to show their green credentials, environmental accounting might well become one of the hot jobs of the future.Here is a good summary of what it entails. Essentially, i...
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Accounting
by leon on May 26, 2008
Today, I had a long chat with Bob Garnett, a member of the London-based International Accounting Standards Board. Before joining the board, he was Executive Vice-President, Finance for the global min...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 26, 2008
If Siemens executives thought the fallout from the bribery scandal was about to go away, they should think again. It's likely to get worse with the trial starting today of former executive Reinha...
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risk
by leon on May 25, 2008
How seriously should companies treat their outbound emails? And are they handling the issue appropriately?For some, these might be significant questions in light of study, reported in the National La...
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Accounting
by leon on May 24, 2008
No surprises that US government auditors have found that the contracting practices in Iraq are deficient. And a complete waste of taxpayers' money.The New York Times reports that the us army'...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 23, 2008
Another sign that times are getting tough. The market gyrations and subprime crisis are providing plenty of opportunities for the unscrupulous, says the Federal Bureau of Investigation.An FBI documen...
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markets
by leon on May 23, 2008
Interesting insights into the global food crisis from London-based consultants Independent Strategy.The World Bank says global food prices have nearly doubled in three years. The crisis has been blam...
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Accounting
by leon on May 22, 2008
Never expect banks to stick to rules once they start losing money. When banks run into trouble, there is a simple solution: just change the rules.No surprises then that the Financial Times reports th...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 22, 2008
The US Department of Justice is flexing its muscles with the unexpected detention of BAE chief executive Mike Turner and another executive at George Bush International Airport. The DOJ is investigati...
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Ethics
by leon on May 21, 2008
Environmental law might focus on front-line companies that visibly pollute or exploit natural resources, but it does little to address their financial backers like the banks, pension plans and mutual...
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Accounting
by leon on May 21, 2008
Every now and then when you read through accounts, you come across a "going concern statement'' from the auditors. It's basically a red flag signalling that the company's state i...
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Accounting
by leon on May 20, 2008
There might be many more female accountants than there were 30 years ago but are still under-represented in the top ranks of accounting firms, according to a new survey.The survey from the Illinois C...
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Accounting
by leon on May 20, 2008
Alarming news that banks and securities firms are hiding $35 billion of writedowns. Instead of putting this stuff on their income statements, where it will hit the bottom line, they are leaving it on...
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Ethics
by leon on May 19, 2008
When the going gets tough, people start snitching.That seems to be the case, according to this New York Times report.The Times reports that calls to the Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers hot line in t...
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executive pay
by leon on May 19, 2008
Soaring executive pay is shaping up as a major political issue. US share prices might have fallen but executive compensation has continued to rise with the average chief executive now making more tha...
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Accounting
by leon on May 18, 2008
Some alarming stats coming out of a recent Grant Thornton survey.According to the survey, nearly 75 per cent of accountants have no experience dealing with International Financial Reporting Standards...
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shareholder activism
by leon on May 18, 2008
The gloves are off! The fight's on between corporate raider Carl Icahn and the Yahoo! board with Icahn selecting an alternative board in a bid to take control of the company. The list of heavy hi...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 16, 2008
Interesting developments in relation to the activity surrounding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).Now we have reports that the US Justice Department has started targeting inidviduals, not jus...
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litigation
by leon on May 16, 2008
Two years ago, there was plenty of talk about how the backdating scandals would turn into a lawyers' picnic. Lawyers, who are always quick to find new ways of making a buck, were filing lawsuits ...
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Accounting
by leon on May 15, 2008
In an extraordinary development, lumbering mortgage finance behemoth Freddie Mac's share price climbed after the company used accounting shenanigans to a report $151 million net loss for the firs...
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strategy
by leon on May 15, 2008
With the credit squeeze and soaring energy prices, it's worth asking whether investors can see that far ahead. How do investors read trends and make the right calls?Emory University academics ask...
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Ethics
by leon on May 14, 2008
With the the growth of the prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), something I have talekd about here and here, you would think people would have learned.Not according to a new s...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 14, 2008
In the past I have talked about the growing threat of mortgage fraud here and here.Now we have the FBI warning that mortgage fraud is rising, up 31 per cent to 46,717 reports. An extraordinary number...
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markets
by leon on May 13, 2008
Green investment is all the rage. But does it deliver? Does it pay off and produce strong profits for the investor.This piece in the latest edition of The Economist, Backing greens with greenbacks, a...
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strategy
by leon on May 13, 2008
Can the biggest get bigger? Can companies get too big to grow? That's the interesting question raised in this Harvard Business Review piece that looks at research showing how companies get to a s...
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markets
by leon on May 12, 2008
The problem with the crisis now is that we have this illusion of market fundamentalism, that the markets are ultimately perfect and self-correcting. But that's a religion built on false premises,...
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markets
by leon on May 12, 2008
What to make of the good economic news? Is the lower unemployment rate cause for celebration? And what of the improving productivity figures and shrinking trade deficit? Don't pop the champagne c...
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Ethics
by leon on May 10, 2008
After its involvement in the shooting of 17 Iraqi citizens last year, a criminal investigation by the FBI, internal investigations by the State Department and the Pentagon, and high-profile Congressi...
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markets
by leon on May 10, 2008
AIG, in combination with the soaring oil price, managed to drag down the US market after it posted a first quarter loss of $7.8 billion on the back of the mortgage-related downturn. And the reality i...
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risk
by leon on May 10, 2008
With the world's banks bleeding from their over-exposure to bone-headed investments and bad loans, the latest hot job is the Chief Risk Officer.Bank Of America, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Mor...
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executive pay
by leon on May 10, 2008
Why does the boss rake in obscene amounts of money while the rest of us toil for what feels like little reward? Apparently it's for your own good.That's the line of economists when they expla...
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Ethics
by leon on May 8, 2008
After the hammering it's received in the Saudi bribe scandal, BAE Systems is now putting out the line that it will be ethical from now on. Don't hold your breath.A new report into the defense...
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Ethics
by leon on May 7, 2008
With more pressure on companies over environmental issues, it's no surprise that complaints about greenwashing are up. A report released by Britain's Advertising Standards Authority found tha...
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markets
by leon on May 7, 2008
It's been a bad bad week for Swiss bank UBS.First it announces it's on the way to cutting 5500 jobs after losing $11 billion in the first quarter as a result of the US subprime crisis. Most o...
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Ethics
by leon on May 6, 2008
Whether it's because of cigarettes, or binge drinking or pollution, it's often blamed on the big corporations.Now a group of academics at City University of New York and University of Michiga...
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Accounting
by leon on May 6, 2008
I have always talked about Sarbanes-Oxley being a gold-mine for accountants. So big a gold-mine that accountants seem to be recession-proof.That might explain the latest data showing that accounting ...
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boards of directors
, Information About
by leon on May 5, 2008
Directors pay is going up, according to a new study from the Corporate Library.Directors' pay has gone up 12 per cent and the explanation given is that it's because of the increased workload....
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SOX
by leon on May 5, 2008
Turning into a whistleblower is a fraught decision. Once it happens, you can expect some form of retaliation. Many would say doing the right thing is not necessarily the right thing to do in terms of...
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markets
by leon on May 3, 2008
No substance has held as much allure over the centuries as gold. And that allure still seems to hold with gold prices going up to as much as $1000 an ounce in March. The price has dropped back since ...
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risk
by leon on May 3, 2008
Phishing. E-bank theft. Spoofing. Botnets.All terms describing different forms of cybercrime. Some good details in this piece of research from Stan Kratchman, Jacob Smith and L. Murphy Smith from the...
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SOX
by leon on May 2, 2008
Average compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley has now hit $1.7 million for big companies with average annual revenues of $4.7 billion. And while compliance costs are actually slipping, that hasn't stopp...
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corporate crime
by leon on May 2, 2008
Siemens earnings are sliding, down 67 per cent, because of project delays, cancellations and costs flowing the bribery investigation.Siemens latest woes coincide with a report from international law ...
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Accounting
by leon on May 2, 2008
Here's a warning to all audit firms: the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has signalled that it will target securitized mortgage loans and collateralized debt offerings when it inspects ...
