SEC: And Then There Were Three

President George W. Bush rebuked the Senate on Thursday for failing to confirm more than 200 appointees to government agencies and federal courts, leaving key posts unfilled at a critical time.The deadlock has been especially draining for those responsible for handling the U.S. economy and financ...

By Alan Rappeport • Feb. 7, 2008

Donaldson Slams “Pendulum Pushers”

William Donaldson, the former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, asserted on Wednesday that the regulatory pendulum has swung too far toward deregulation, criticizing the movement toward “vague, principles-based” financial reporting.Just as soon as the reforms instituted under the Sarba...

By David Katz • Feb. 7, 2008

How to Fix the Rating Agencies, Part II

In 2007, lawmakers waggled their fingers at the credit rating agencies for missing the mark in assessing the risks of mortgage-backed securities, a factor congressmen and senators claim partly led to the subprime-mortgage crisis. Now, nearly a year after the mortgage market meltdown, national and...

By Sarah Johnson • Feb. 7, 2008

“Sham” Licenses Cost ex-KPMG Unit Principal

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled its three-year-old case with a former KPMG Consulting principal who was involved in Peregrine Systems’ accounting fraud. Larry Rodda has agreed to pay the SEC $80,000 to settle the charges. According to the regulator, Rodda signed four “sham” sof...

By Sarah Johnson • Feb. 6, 2008

Seagate Drives Shareholder Value

Seagate Technology is stepping up with an aggressive plan to boost shareholder value.The disc-drive giant said it will increase its quarterly dividend by 25 percent, from $0.10 to $0.12 per share.At the same time, Seagate’s board of directors has authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 5, 2008

Grant Thornton: U.K. Companies Slack on Filings

Although International Financial Reporting Standards may be simpler than America’s equivalent, that doesn’t mean they’re simple.They’re anything but, according to a recent survey by Grant Thornton’s U.K. division. The study found that nearly 60 percent of companies on the FTSE 350 claim they’re n...

By Alan Rappeport • Feb. 5, 2008

Running the SEC on the Cheap

The Bush administration is seeking a budget of $914 million for the Securities and Exchange Commission for fiscal 2009, an increase of less than 1 percent over projected spending this year of $907 million.The puny increase for the new Sept. 30 fiscal year, reported by Reuters, comes despite the S...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 4, 2008

Step Change

In the low-lying coastal region of England’s East Anglia, climate change is already afoot. At Anglian Water, the £919m (€1.2 billion) utility that serves the region, more than 85% of the incidents that its wastewater emergency team was called on to address in the last fiscal year were weather-rel...

By Jason Karaian • Feb. 4, 2008

Sarbanes in Switzerland?

When it comes to administration, the Swiss are famous for their efficiency and attention to detail. It is somewhat surprising, then, that a number of changes to company audit law are only now coming into effect. Most notably, from January 1st 2008 auditors must verify internal control systems at ...

By Jason Karaian • Feb. 4, 2008

Welcome Aboard

In 1985, Norway’s government introduced a target of 40% female representation on public committees, a quota not met until 1997. The country’s listed companies were given less time to meet a similar quota. Under a law introduced in 2006, at least 40% of corporate board member posts were required t...

By Jason Karaian • Feb. 4, 2008

SEC to Delay 404(b) for Small Companies

The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted unanimously to recommend a one-year delay of the date when small companies must comply with the auditor-attestation provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act so that it can complete a study on the costs of compliance with Section 404.SEC chairman Christo...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 1, 2008

Attempting to Answer the $91,000 Question

Ever since companies began to confront Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the question of how much it actually costs to comply has been hotly debated. While many companies ridiculed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s initial estimate of $91,000 as being far too low, the figure has attai...

By Sarah Johnson • Feb. 1, 2008

No Rest for the Leery

What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, the newly formed Committee on Capital Markets Regulation (CCMR), which was organized by Harvard Law School professor Hal Scott and blessed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, was garnering plenty of buzz as it pushed for key reforms to fina...

By Alix Stuart • Feb. 1, 2008

Losing Their Grip

Few ways of getting around China are more harrowing than a nighttime taxi ride through the countryside. Invariably, such trips are taken at high speed. With one hand on the steering wheel, the cabbie will accelerate past villages, swerve around ox carts, and honk at each pedestrian and cyclist pa...

By Yang Jian and Don Durfee • Feb. 1, 2008

Feeling Confident?

CFOs might be worried about the economy, but when it comes to themselves, they are generally an optimistic bunch.John Maynard Keynes once wrote, “Individual initiative will only be adequate when reasonable calculation is supplemented and supported by animal spirits.” The British economist observe...

By Alan Rappeport • Jan. 31, 2008

Deloitte Analyzes SEC’s Take on IFRS

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s November 2007 decision to drop the requirement for foreign issuers to reconcile financial statements with U.S. GAAP did not happen overnight. One measure the SEC took was to carefully review the IFRS filings of foreign issuers and comment on what was wrong...

By Alan Rappeport • Jan. 31, 2008

Shadow over the Super Bowl: Counterfeiting

Law-enforcement officials confiscated more than $140,000 worth of phony sports-related clothing and memorabilia from a sports memorabilia store in Glendale, Ariz., on the eve of the Super Bowl, which will be played there on Sunday.Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and an...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 31, 2008

“Diamonds on Every Finger and Toe”

A former accounting clerk was sentenced to 11 years in prison for stealing more than $1 million from her Illinois employer. The ex-clerk, Jonah Bantug, used the money to bankroll her gambling addiction at Illinois riverboats and during trips to Las Vegas, and other purchases such as flat-screen ...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 31, 2008

Breaking Up Isn’t So Hard to Do

With an economic downturn looming, more companies are likely to be stuck with excess office space this year. The good news: experts say that conditions are more favorable than ever to break leases with minimal consequences.Normally, landlords charge high premiums for tenants to get out of leases....

By Alix Stuart • Jan. 30, 2008

SEC Cracks Down on “Creative Writing”

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that it took action in two unrelated cases of companies using bogus press releases.In one of the cases, the regulator accused Stinger Systems Inc. and company president Robert Gruder of making a series of material misrepresentations and omi...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 30, 2008

AIG Settles Broker-Payoff Cases

American International Group has agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle with nine states and the District of Columbia in their investigations into questionable payments by insurance companies to brokers. The investigations have focused on contingent commissions paid to brokers based on bringing bu...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 29, 2008

Sarbox Stings Small Biz, but How Much?

The California think-tank RAND Corp. spent last year quantifying the impact on small business of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404. And in the areas of cost, negative stock-price reactions, and the tendency to exit public markets, its research showed that companies with less than $75 million market capi...

By Roy Harris • Jan. 29, 2008

XBRL: The Ugliest Acronym

Critics of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “interactive data” agenda have been more vocal lately, as the possibility of an XBRL mandate begins to look more like a reality. But rather than shying away, the SEC has embraced critiques of its plan for extensible business-reporting language.T...

By Alan Rappeport • Jan. 28, 2008

CFO Punished for Wire Fraud

A federal court has entered a final judgment against the former CFO of Q Comm International — now called Emida — for committing wire and accounting fraud. The ex-CFO, Michael Openshaw, agreed without admitting or denying the allegations to be barred from serving as an officer or director of a pu...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 28, 2008

Broadcom “Conspirators” Are Outed

Federal prosecutors have identified Broadcom co-founders Henry T. Nicholas III and Henry Samueli as “unindicted potential co-conspirators” in an investigation into the illegal backdating of stock options, the Associated Press has reported.The disclosure came as a result of a plea deal with Nancy ...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 25, 2008