Better Accounts of Future Cleanup Costs

Until recently, difficulties in predicting cleanup costs haven’t mattered much to senior finance executives. That’s because, under Securities and Exchange Commission rules and Financial Accounting Standards Board dictates, they’ve had the latitude to report the cheapest cost estimates. “There isn...

By David Katz • Sept. 9, 2004

Turning Point for Pollution Insurance

While much hard science goes into the tidying up of a polluted corporate site, gauging the future costs of that job can involve skills that are a good deal softer.Armed with varying and sometimes patented cleanup strategies, different environmental consultants can come in with cost estimates that...

By David Katz • Sept. 9, 2004

Hurricane Frances Spares Insurers

Hurricane Frances will probably not rack up aslarge an insurance bill as initially feared. With premium hikes typically following big losses, that’s good news for most insurance-buying companies not affected by the devastating storm.At first, news reports citing estimates from Risk ManagementSolu...

By Stephen Taub • Sept. 8, 2004

Spurning the CFO Act

Some think it was just an oversight that the Department of Homeland Security, created two years ago, became the only cabinet-level agency not subject to the CFO Act of 1990. Indeed, bills in both houses of Congress now seek to apply the act to the DHS — which would require Senate approval for its...

By Roy Harris • Sept. 8, 2004

SEC Would Revive Expired Fraud Claims

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly pushing to give investors with expired fraudulent claims against companies more time to sue.In a friend-of-the-court brief filed last week, the SEC asked the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to make Section 804 of the Sarbanes-O...

By Craig Schneider • Sept. 7, 2004

Benefits on the Fast Track

Companies finally have a regulatory blueprint for how to use their captive insurer to fund benefits programs. Now the question is, how many will take advantage of it?Last November, International Paper became the first company to receive “fast-track” approval from the Department of Labor to fund i...

By Lori Calabro • Sept. 7, 2004

Don’t Blame Cheney

Finance employees are facing off in a newly filed complaint against Halliburton Co. Although the embattled energy and construction company recently paid $7.5 million to settle an SEC charge that it had failed to disclose a 1998 accounting change, Houston-based Halliburton is not yet in the clear....

By Kate O'Sullivan • Sept. 3, 2004

One Size Fits All?

Should there be a “little GAAP”?That’s a question the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is currently tackling. Last winter, the New York-based professional organization formed a Private Company Financial Accounting Task Force to determine just how well generally accepted accounti...

By Lori Calabro • Sept. 3, 2004

Enron Official Offers Plea

The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Kevin Hannon, the former chief operating officer of Enron Broadband Services (EBS), to pay disgorgements and civil penalties of $3.2 million, according to a settlement announced yesterday.Hannon has also agreed “to cooperate with the government’s con...

By Ed Zwirn • Sept. 2, 2004

U.S. Antidumping Sanctions on Tap

The World Trade Organization has reportedly decided to authorize sanctions against the United States by the European Union and other leading U.S. trade partners in response to what the WTO deems to be illegal antidumping rules.The ruling could be a potential major blow to the U.S. steel industry,...

By Ed Zwirn • Sept. 1, 2004

‘Corporate Kleptocracy’ at Hollinger

Conrad Black, Hollinger International’s former chief executive officer, David Radler, its former chief operating officer, and other controlling shareholders and associates constituted a “corporate kleptocracy” which systematically looted the company of more than $400 million, according to a repo...

By Ed Zwirn • Sept. 1, 2004

SEC Lets Up on the Accelerator

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a one-year postponement of the third and final phase of regulations designed to speed up quarterly and annual filings for larger companies.According to the SEC, the proposal to postpone this final phase would “allow additional time and opportuni...

By Craig Schneider and Ed Zwirn • Aug. 30, 2004

Guilty Plea for Ex-Enron IR Chief

Mark Koenig, the former head of investor relations at Enron Corp., pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting securities fraud, according to news reports. Like former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, Koenig has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, adding to the roster of po...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 27, 2004

Citigroup Sued over Enron-Linked Notes

On behalf of institutional investors, Bank of New York has filed suit against Citigroup regarding the sale of financial instruments linked to Enron, Reuters reported.The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, alleged that Citigroup knew Enron’s debts were far greater than the numbers pre...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 27, 2004

Real-Time Reporting Takes Flight

A new Sarbanes-Oxley Act rules that force companies to become faster and more forthcoming about disclosing material events went into effect today.As a way of implementing the “Real-Time Issuer Disclosure” provision of Sarbox Section 409, the SEC expanded the existing rule that governs disclosure ...

By Marie Leone • Aug. 23, 2004

Funds Ordered to End Broker Incentives

The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered mutual funds to stop paying higher commissions to brokers who promote the companies’ funds and required portfolio managers to reveal investments in funds they supervise, Bloomberg reported.Wednesday’s SEC action continues the agency’s crackdown on th...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 19, 2004

Janus Firm Settles Fraud Charges

Registered investment adviser Janus Capital Management LLC (JCM) agreed to pay $100 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle charges that the Denver-based company entered into “undisclosed market-timing agreements with certain investors.”As part of a settlement including ...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 19, 2004

SEC Could Sue Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods Inc. is on notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly failing to disclose perks it handed out to some of its executives.The SEC staff is recommending that the commission bring a civil law suit against the meat-producing giant, and possibly seek monetary damages.T...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 18, 2004

Canada Opens Probe of Nortel Accounting

Telecom-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. is facing legal scrutiny on its home turf as well as in the United States.Nortel, said to be Canada’s largest high-tech company, announced Monday that it had received a letter from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Integrated Market Enforcement Team...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 18, 2004

Insurers Could Pay for Patent Infringements

Corporations could have more protection from intellectual-property-related lawsuits than they might have thought.In what the National Underwriter Online Property & Casualty News Service called a “precedent-setting decision,” a federal appeals court panel has ruled that commercial insurance po...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 17, 2004

Say It Ain’t So, Spidey

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued three people for manipulating the stock of Stan Lee Media, an online entertainment company founded by the comic book legend that collapsed in late 2000.The SEC sued company co-founder Peter Paul, former senior operations executive Stephen Gordon; an...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 17, 2004

SEC Staff Mulls Compliance Delays

The Securities and Exchange Commission is giving serious thought to putting off corporate implementation of some of its rulemaking initiatives in order to give senior managers and auditors time to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley’s internal controls provisions in a letter-perfect way.No telling yet wha...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 16, 2004

Life Insurer CFOs Concerned about Sarbox Costs

Most life insurance CFOs are worried about the costs associated with implementing Sarbanes-Oxley and the demands required to meet the internal control requirements of Section 404.These are among the key findings from the most recent survey of 32 finance chiefs from North American life insurance c...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 16, 2004

Sarbox 404 Costs 63 Percent Higher than Expected

Companies seem to be shelling out much more money than they had figured on to comply with Section 404 of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act.The provision, which goes into effect Nov. 15, will cost public companies 63 percent on average more than they had previously thought, according to a new survey by Fina...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 12, 2004

Plea Hearing Cancelled for Boeing’s Ex-CFO

Michael Sears has received what’s likely to be a temporary reprieve. The Aug. 11 hearing at which the former Boeing CFO was planning to plead guilty to helping a former Air Force official get a job at the aerospace giant while she was overseeing a huge contract was canceled by prosecutors, accor...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 11, 2004