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SOX
by leon on November 1, 2006
There is no doubt that Sarbanes-Oxley is costly. Which is why American business, with the help of the Bush administration, is moving to reduce the impact of SOX, and limit the liability of corporation...
Read more of SOX and the social impact of fraud
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Ethics
by leon on October 31, 2006
Interesting question raised by Forbes about ethics officers. Noting that an ethics officer did not help Hewlett-Packard, Forbes asks the rhetorical question: Chief Ethics Officers: Who Needs Them?The ...
Read more of HP's ethics officer problem
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markets
by leon on October 30, 2006
These are worrying times. The boom in private equity, driven in part by the hunger of mutual and super funds looking for big returns, low interest rates and regulatory constraints of public corporatio...
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Ethics
by leon on October 30, 2006
Who wants a slice of this?With Halliburton getting ready to float its engineering and construction subsidiary KBR, we now have a news report how KBR is hiding critical information from US taxpayers on...
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Compliance
by leon on October 30, 2006
Is this a sign of things to come worldwide?Green pressure groups in Britain are now pushing for a change in the listing rules which would require companies floating on the London Stock Exchange to dis...
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SOX
by leon on October 29, 2006
What impact has Sarbanes-Oxley had on the audit profession?So far, most of the attention has been on the costs it's imposed on companies.For example, with the law due for changes when the Securiti...
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executive pay
by leon on October 28, 2006
As expected, former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso has told a state appeals court that he will challenge last week's ruling from Justice Charles E. Ramos that he return as much as...
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regulators
by leon on October 27, 2006
The Securities and Exchange Commission, panned by Congress for its handling of a trading probe that entangled Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, is now under investigation from the Government Accountabilit...
Read more of Government Accountability Office targets Securities and Exchange Commission
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Ethics
by leon on October 26, 2006
Oh-so-serious Yale student Aleksey Vayner has become a celebrity of sorts (well, not the sort he was hoping to be) when his preposterously funny 11-page CV and accompanying video he submitted to UBS w...
Read more of The awful job hunter as a model of corporate ethics
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Accounting
by leon on October 26, 2006
Good times for beancounters will continue to roll in next year because of the shortage of accountants and the demands of Sarbanes-OxleySalaries for finance specialists are set to increase 3.8 per cent...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 25, 2006
As expected, Jeff Skilling had the book thrown at him on Monday and got an effective life sentence. With the smart money betting on the former Enron CEO getting a 20 to 30 year sentence, a jail term o...
Read more of The Skilling sentence: response and analysis
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Ethics
by leon on October 24, 2006
On the face of it, it's good news. But look closer, and you have to start wondering.Just about every company board is now more involved in the company's ethics and compliance program, accordin...
Read more of The ethics mirage
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SOX
by leon on October 24, 2006
The debate about whether SOX is driving companies away from the US market, and whether more are listing overseas because of SOX-related costs is about to move into over-drive. But the big shift will h...
Read more of Hong Kong overtakes US for IPOs - don't blame SOX
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executive pay
by leon on October 23, 2006
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer won a stunning court victory last week to overturn former new york stock exchange chairman Dick Grasso's outsized $187 million pay package.What's still ...
Read more of The Grasso decision: is it really a turning point?
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SOX
by leon on October 23, 2006
Another sign that Sarbanes-Oxley is being reassessed and could be watered down in the next few months. The big question is whether it's gonna be an overhaul or just a tweak.The latest indication o...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 21, 2006
Ken Lay's conviction has been wiped, Andrew Fastow has won a reduced sentence and on Monday, it's Jeff Skilling's turn to face the judge.Commentators are expecting that unlike Lay and Fast...
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boards of directors
by leon on October 21, 2006
With at least 140 companies including UnitedHealth and Apple saying they are being examined by federal authorities or are reviewing the way they timed their stock-option grants, the role of company di...
Read more of Stock options backdating: six degrees of separation
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corporate governance
by leon on October 20, 2006
The murky governance of football's governing body FIFA and the role of its president Sepp Blatter has again been called into question. And FIFA is now a text-book example of how certain forms of g...
Read more of FIFA's fiefdoms: Blatter defends governance and slams meddlers
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SOX
by leon on October 19, 2006
Costly, over-taxing and a complete waste of time.The first two claims about Sarbanes-Oxley from smaller companies are not completely without foundation.But the third warrants another look.But a new st...
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corporate crime
by leon on October 18, 2006
As expected, Judge Sim Lake has wiped the conspiracy and fraud convictions of Enron founder Ken Lay, report the news wires.The reason: Ken Lay died before he could appeal which means his conviction mu...
Read more of Ken Lay cleared, not his legacy
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corporate reputation
by leon on October 18, 2006
More problems for the world's biggest bank with raids on the Seoul office of Citigroup Global Markets, according to news reports out of South Korea.Prosecutors say they are investigating the invol...
Read more of Citigroup headaches: now it's Korea
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executive pay
by leon on October 17, 2006
So Apple was held up last week as a model of crisis management, with some even claiming Steve Jobs' statement on its problems with options, and the resignation of Jobs' adviser Fred Anderson, ...
Read more of Questions continue about Apple's options
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corporate governance
by leon on October 17, 2006
The fallout from the Hewlett-Packard pretexting spying scandal continues to grow.Blame it on a dysfunctional board that made it a disaster waiting to happen. Blame it on the toxic relationships in the...
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risk
by leon on October 16, 2006
I never cease to be amazed by the way managers, executives and employees lower down the food chain routinely avoid confronting the crunch issues and problems.In the case of corporate cot-cases like En...
Read more of Silence, the project killer
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SOX
by leon on October 16, 2006
December is shaping up as a big month for SOX watchers.Treasury secretary Hank Paulson has put together a posse, as described by the New York Post, targeting Sarbanes-Oxley with the outfit including f...
Read more of Will the Paulson posse really fix Sarbox?
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risk
by leon on October 15, 2006
With the troubled hedge fund Amaranth now cutting 60 per cent of its workforce after blowing $6 billion on bad bets in the natural gas market, the pressure is mounting for hedge funds to come under mo...
Read more of Systemic risks turn hedge funds into lemons
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corporate crime
by leon on October 15, 2006
Conrad Black, self-proclaimed freedom fighter, was in fine form the other night when he made an appearance at the Empire Club of Canada in downtown Toronto.Black, who is now trying to get his Canadian...
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executive pay
by leon on October 14, 2006
Excellent piece in The Wall Street Journal about why attempts to control CEO pay amount to a losing battle.The piece by Joann Lublin and Scott Thurm should be studied carefully. It gives a history of ...
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Ethics
by leon on October 13, 2006
This week, I had a chat with Lord Michael hastings, the former journalist turned activist who works as KPMG's international director of corporate citizenship, when he is not sitting in the House o...
Read more of Interview with Lord Michael Hastings
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Compliance
by leon on October 12, 2006
Back in August, I did a blog entry on the court decision to set aside the conviction of contractor Custer Battles, the first corporate fraud case to emerge from mess that's Iraq.At the time, I sai...
Read more of Afghanistan, Inc.
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corporate governance
by leon on October 11, 2006
Lies, damned lies and surveys.public relations outfit Weber Shandwick came out this week suggesting that chief executives are now more secure in their jobs.There was a 16 per cent decline in CEO churn...
Read more of Short-term CEOs
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Ethics
by leon on October 11, 2006
Warren Buffett has told his managers to step up their efforts to stop unethical practices, according to the latest news reports.In his memorandum, written the week before Hewlett-Packard chairwoman Pa...
Read more of Ethics from the top: Warren Buffett's ethics lesson
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Accounting
by leon on October 11, 2006
Once dismissed as fuzzy and meaningless work from greenies, sustainability reporting seems to be gaining some traction in boardrooms with the release of the latest Global Reporting Initiative.The new ...
Read more of Sustainability reporting: carrots and sticks
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risk
by leon on October 11, 2006
Earlier this year, I did an entry on where the next Enron was going to come from. Hedge funds, options trickery and Fannie Mae-style accounting shenanigans were put up as possible danger areas.Another...
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Accounting
by leon on October 10, 2006
The push by the big accounting firms to get more protection from damages claims has gained momentum with a study from London Economics. The study's perspective is for the European market but in a ...
Read more of Call for liability caps
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SOX
by leon on October 10, 2006
Jack Ciesielski at the AAO Weblog has a good post updating us on a speech by public company Accounting Oversight Board member Charlie Niemeier that seeks to dispel notions that the costs of regulation...
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risk
by leon on October 7, 2006
Murphy's law is alive and well.Australian telco Telstra's strategy briefing, ahead of its partial privatisation by the Australian Government, got off to a bad start when the emergency sprinkle...
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Ethics
by leon on October 7, 2006
Proclaiming her innocence, ousted Hewlett-Packard chairwoman Patricia Dunn has expanded on the second line to her defence.The first track to her defence is ignorance of the law.Now in an interview on ...
Read more of Patricia Dunn: Everybody does it!
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Accounting
by leon on October 6, 2006
In the past, I have written a piece about China being the land of the missing accountants.The country is sorely lacking beancounters following the Cultural Revolution when professionals were denounced...
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Accounting
by leon on October 6, 2006
Sam Antar, former chief financial officer of the now-defunct electronics chain Crazy Eddie's, orchestrated a monstrous accounting fraud in the late 1980s and went on to serve as the government'...
Read more of Auditors and white collar crime: advice from an expert
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corporate reputation
by leon on October 5, 2006
Two significant developments, two significant companies. And initially, it looks like a study in contrasts.California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has charged ousted Hewlett-Packard chairwoman Patric...
Read more of Apple & HP: a study in contrasts?
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risk
by leon on October 5, 2006
Climate change and global warming are shaping up as massive security risks for nations and business.A research paper from the Lowy Institute in Australia warns that it will destablise the Asia-Pacific...
Read more of Climate change and security risks
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corporate crime
by leon on October 5, 2006
Businesses in India and China are the most likely to engage in bribes and dirty dealings, according to the latest Transparency International Bribe Payers Index.India consistently ranks low on the poll...
Read more of India, China and Russia top on bribe table, US lagging
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risk
by leon on October 4, 2006
The wrong-way bets which cost Connecticut-based hedge fund Amaranth Advisors more than $6 billion have renewed calls for these unregulated pools of money to be brought under more control.So far, the S...
Read more of The hedges are burning: Amaranth and risky business
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executive pay
by leon on October 4, 2006
Excessive pay packets for bosses could be having an enormous impact on organisations, according to a fascinating new study.The research confirms that we use other people's outcomes to evaluate our...
Read more of Knock-on effects of CEO pay
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SOX
by leon on October 3, 2006
So change is ahead. The question is whether it will be real change, or just a band-aid.Michael Oxley, the SOX co-author, has come out saying that he expects some changes next year in the way that Sarb...
Read more of Fixing holes in SOX
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Accounting
by leon on October 3, 2006
No secret that Sarbanes-Oxley has been a bonanza for accountants.More confirmation of this comes from a just-released Rosenberg Associates MAP survey which shows it's been the best year since 2000...
