Implanting Fraud? Ex-CFO Settles SEC Charges

A former CFO of Swiss health-care products company Centerpulse settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges related to his alleged involvement in the fraudulent inflation of Centerpulse’s income during the third and fourth quarters of 2002.Urs Kamber, the ex-finance chief, is among a number...

By Stephen Taub • June 2, 2008

Stress Test

“We are in the eye of the storm,” says Simon Melliss, the long-serving finance chief of Hammerson, one of the UK’s largest property groups. This particular storm started last summer after the US’s subprime mortgage meltdown, and is battering companies like Hammerson as property values plummet and...

By Janet Kersnar • June 2, 2008

Click Here

From retail punters to the largest money managers, few investors research a company without first paying its corporate website a visit. The good news for European companies is that their sites are now considered top-notch. Eight of the top ten companies in this year’s Financial Times/Bowen Craggs...

By Eila Rana • June 2, 2008

Hard to Say I’m Sorry

In May, when Crédit Agricole chief executive Georges Pauget admitted to reporters that the French bank had “paid the price” for decisions it made before the credit crunch, it was a relatively straightforward mea culpa. Swiss bank UBS was similarly forthcoming when it published a 50-page document ...

By Tim Burke • June 2, 2008

REACHing Out

From disposable nappies to dustbin lids, toothbrushes to toys, chemicals are everywhere. The 30,000 substances that must be registered under the EU’s new REACH regulation — that is, the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals — are just the tip of the iceberg. But whi...

By Jennifer Rankin • June 2, 2008

Principles vs. Practices

Rules seem onerous until you contemplate life without them. That seems to be one message uncovered in a survey of more than 200 CFOs and senior comptrollers recently conducted by accounting firm Grant Thornton. Asked whether today’s financial statements are too complex for the average investor, a...

By Scott Leibs • June 1, 2008

Suddenly, It’s Here

Saying that it will “let the sun shine in as never before,” Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox announced last month that the SEC had voted unanimously to propose a rule that will require companies — by as early as next year — to file financial statements in an “interactiv...

By Alan Rappeport • June 1, 2008

A CFO Wannabe’s Litany of Lies

Federal prosecutors have brought criminal charges against a Florida man for engaging in a bizarre, elaborate scheme to be hired as a CFO.Jorge Enrique Yepes was charged with three counts of wire fraud for allegedly forging correspondence from a Securities and Exchange Commission attorney. If conv...

By Stephen Taub and David McCann • May 30, 2008

E&Y Ex-Partner Indicted for Insider Trades on Deals

A former Ernst & Young partner and an investment banker were indicted for participating in a scheme to trade on inside information about seven separate, potential merger-and-acquisition transactions involving clients of the Big Four accounting firm.James Gansman, the former E&Y partner, a...

By Stephen Taub • May 29, 2008

Welcome Back, Guidance

Earnings guidance may be back in vogue.Two-thirds of investor relations professionals responding to a recent National Investor Relations Institute survey reported they were providing earnings guidance, reversing a trend away from the practice over several years.In 2007, just 51 percent of NIRI re...

By Stephen Taub • May 28, 2008

Haggling on the Hill

There was lofty talk of bipartisanship in Washington, DC, this week as a bill to rescue struggling homeowners cleared a key Senate committee, the biggest hurdle it is likely to face. But the noise in the background was the unmistakable sound of horses being traded.Democrats got their expansion of...

By Economist Staff • May 23, 2008

Today’s Tip: Stay Away from the SEC

It goes without saying that free-wheeling auditors prefer to keep their distance from the Securities and Exchange Commission. But now a new study suggests that the benefit of staying away from the SEC may be literal as well as figurative.Auditors located farther away from the SEC’s 11 regional of...

By Alan Rappeport • May 22, 2008

Can’t Pay SEC Penalty? Don’t Bother

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled civil fraud charges against the ex-CFO of Royal Ahold’s one-time U.S. subsidiary relating to the company’s massive accounting scandal. Michael Resnick, the former finance chief of U.S. Foodservice, consented to the judgment without admitting or ...

By Stephen Taub • May 21, 2008

Ex-Finance Exec Settles Insider Trading Charges

A former finance executive for Provide Commerce has settled insider trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gordon C. Bigler, director of corporate finance and investor relations for the e-commerce company that sells fresh flowers and fruit, has consented, without admitting o...

By Stephen Taub • May 21, 2008

Patient with Pups, but Tough on Troubled Treasurers

The former treasurer of the American Spaniel Club, after pleading guilty to stealing $120,000 by writing checks to herself to support a gambling habit, received 15 years probation as her sentence. She was also ordered to pay $500 monthly until June 2009, and $1,000 thereafter, according to the Ta...

By Stephen Taub and Roy Harris • May 19, 2008

Another Problem Parent

Mortgage craters, ropy disclosure, bloated costs, a newish boss desperately trying to stop the haemorrhaging amid calls for radical surgery, even a break-up. Citigroup? Aptly though this describes America’s biggest bank, it could just as easily apply to its biggest insurer, American International...

By Economist Staff • May 15, 2008

Settling for Less? A Study in Backdating

The improper backdating of stock options apparently has not generated the number or size of shareholder class-action suits that some observers expected.Of nearly 250 companies identified as being potentially involved in backdating, only 37 have actually been the target of related federal sharehol...

By Stephen Taub • May 15, 2008

Startling Strategy: Sue the Shareholder

Vaalco Energy is trying an unsual tactic to stave off a proxy fight: suing its shareholders.The independent oil producer filed an action against New York City-based hedge fund Nanes Delorme Partners I L.P., and Pilatus Energy SA, of Zug, Switzerland, in federal court, alleging they violated secur...

By Stephen Taub • May 15, 2008

SEC Charges Ex-Broadcom CFO, Three Others

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a former CFO of Broadcom Corp. and three other of its current or former officers with participating in a five-year scheme to secretly backdate stock options granted to virtually all Broadcom officers and employees.The SEC’s complaint alleged that fro...

By Stephen Taub • May 14, 2008

JPMorgan May Be Charged over Muni Bonds

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the Securities and Exchange Commission may bring civil charges against the bank related to the bidding of financial instruments tied to municipal bonds.The banking giant said in a regulatory filing that the Philadelphia regional office of the SEC sent the bank a Well...

By Stephen Taub • May 14, 2008

How Ahold Unit Fooled the Auditors

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled a civil fraud action against a former executive of Royal Ahold’s then-U.S. unit stemming from the company’s massive accounting fraud earlier this decade.Brian Spears, a former vice president of purchasing at U.S. Foodservice, then a subsidiary of Dut...

By Stephen Taub • May 14, 2008

Greenberg Group Sues AIG

A foundation headed by former American International Group chief executive Maurice Greenberg has accused the insurance company’s current CEO and CFO of misrepresenting multibillion-dollar losses in AIG’s portfolio of credit-default swaps. The alleged deception caused significant losses for the fo...

By Stephen Taub • May 8, 2008

Congress Probes SEC’s Role in Credit Crisis

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been forced to play defense in the wake of the Bear Stearns implosion — and the credit crisis overall. Indeed, its supervision of five investment banks and oversight of the credit rating agencies have been repeatedly scrutinized by Congress during the pa...

By Sarah Johnson • May 7, 2008

White House Picks Paredes for SEC

The Bush administration will nominate Troy Paredes, a Washington University law professor, to be a Republican commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a senior administration official told CFO.com on Tuesday.The decision comes a day after Paul Atkins announced that he would not see...

By Alan Rappeport • May 6, 2008

Who’s Seeking Merrill’s Auction-Rate Data?

Merrill Lynch said it has received requests for information from various governmental agencies regarding auction-rate securities, including the recent failure of auctions.The banking giant did not provide further details, and didn’t note which governmental agencies were seeking the data. In a reg...

By Stephen Taub • May 6, 2008