SEC Names Kroeker to Accounting Post

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named James L. Kroeker as deputy chief accountant for accounting in the Commission’s Office of the Chief Accountant.Kroeker will be responsible for resolution of accounting issues, rulemaking projects, and oversight of standard-setting efforts for privat...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 5, 2007

Investors Sue Dell over Alleged Kickback

Investors are accusing Dell Inc. of an accounting kickback scheme involving chipmaker Intel Corp., according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, investors charge that Dell is being paid as much as $1 billion annually by Intel to assure that Dell uses only Inte...

By Marie Leone • Feb. 2, 2007

Investigation Dilemma: Sing or Keep Mum?

If your company — like so many these days — is conducting an internal investigation, beware. Your interrogators may work for the same company you do, but they’re essentially government deputies, legal experts say.In 2004, executives of CA (previously known as Computer Associates), including forme...

By Helen Shaw • Feb. 2, 2007

Qwest Pays $45M to Settle with Calstrs

Qwest Communications has agreed to pay $45 million, and former chief executive officer Joseph Nacchio, $1.5 million, to settle a lawsuit by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (Calstrs).The nation’s second-largest pension fund estimated that it lost $150 million, reported the Associa...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 1, 2007

More Backdating Suits Coming, Says Cox

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox sent a stark warning on Wednesday to companies that have engaged in improper timing of stock option grants.Speaking to reporters, Cox said that the commission is vigorously proceeding with probes at more than 100 public companies and tha...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 1, 2007

Sarbox on Ice?

Although it’s not even five years old, there’s no question that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has seen better days.Currently the target of a lawsuit that threatens its existence, the PCAOB has also been criticized by its boss, the Securities and Exchange Commission, for burdening ...

By David Katz • Feb. 1, 2007

Bush on ”The State of the Economy”

President Bush said executives’ pay should be linked to their company’s performance and urged board members to better monitor executive compensation, but he expressed opposition to government efforts that would give shareholders more say in the matter.Bush also called for certain changes regardin...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 31, 2007

CNet, Krispy Kreme Current on Filings

Companies that delayed regulatory filings after backdated stock options grants are slowing coming into compliance.The two latest companies to become current in their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission: CNet Networks and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.Online media company CNet, which disc...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 30, 2007

Inflection Point

There is no denying that hedge funds are the black holes of the investment galaxy. With some 9,000 funds pulling in $1.2 trillion in investments while offering almost no transparency, they have raised the ire of CFOs and the eyebrows of regulators.The Securities and Exchange Commission, which was...

By Lori Calabro • Jan. 30, 2007

Top Ten Signs the Pendulum Has Swung

One after another, the stars are lining up. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board beat retreats from bright-line strictures on internal controls. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson sets up a kitchen cabinet of deregulators in hopes of preventi...

By David Katz • Jan. 30, 2007

Former CA CFO Gets Light Sentence

The former chief financial officer of CA got a relatively light sentence for playing what a federal judge called a key role in the software company’s $2.2 billion accounting fraud. U.S. District Judge I. Leo Glasser sentenced Ira Zar to seven months in prison and seven months of home detention, c...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 29, 2007

Green America: Waking Up and Catching Up

When Jim Webb, the new Democratic senator from Virginia, replied to George Bush’s state-of-the-union message, he could bear to endorse only one of the president’s proposals. This was the idea of cutting America’s petrol (gasoline) consumption by 20% in ten years, by increasing ethanol production ...

By Economist Staff • Jan. 29, 2007

Ex-AquaCell CFO Sentenced for IPO Scheme

The former chief financial officer of AquaCell Technologies Inc. was sentenced to six months home detention and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine for lying to auditors during the company’s initial public offering, according to the Associated Press.In October, Gary Wolff pleaded guilty to one count of...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 29, 2007

Institutional Investors Eye “Say on Pay”

A group of institutional investors have filed a resolution with 44 U.S. corporations to win the right for shareholders to submit an advisory vote on executive compensation packages.The resolution, informally dubbed “Say on Pay,” is literally that, since it would not be binding on the companies.“W...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 29, 2007

Former Cendant CFO Seeks Probation

The former chief financial officer of Cendant is desperately trying to stay out of prison. Cosmo Corigliano, who is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for his role in the largest accounting fraud of the pre-Enron era, is asking the judge to sentence him to probation, home confinement, and communit...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 26, 2007

Former NBC Treasurer Arrested

U.S. federal authorities have arrested the former treasurer of NBC Universal, Victor Jung, 34, on charges that he stole over $800,000 from the media conglomerate and used the money for personal gain.Jung, who was indicted on two counts of wire fraud Thursday, could be sentenced to a maximum of 20...

By Helen Shaw • Jan. 25, 2007

Former Enron IR Exec Enters Prison

Mark Koenig, the ex-chief of investor relations at Enron, began serving an 18-month prison term on Wednesday for helping top executives mislead Wall Street about the company’s financial condition, according to the Houston Chronicle.Koenig, who began serving the sentence in Three Rivers federal p...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 25, 2007

Voting, Pay Top Shareholder Agendas

While voting rights tops the priority list for shareholder proposals this proxy season, executive pay is also likely to be the focus of a push by institutional investors, according to Institutional Shareholder Services. Indeed, ISS has tracked 104 pending proposals aimed at giving shareholders mo...

By Sarah Johnson • Jan. 25, 2007

SEC Settles with Former Alcore Execs

Two former executives of Alcore, once a subsidiary of aerospace equipment manufacturer Advanced Technical Products (ATP), have agreed to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges of securities fraud and falsification of books and records.The commission alleged that former chief executive ...

By Helen Shaw • Jan. 23, 2007

Law Firm, Enron Settle for $18.5 Million

Texas law firm Andrews Kurth has agreed to pay $18.5 million to Enron to settle potential malpractice claims, according to published accounts.The law firm was never sued by Enron, noted the Houston Chronicle, but it was the subject of criticism by court-appointed bankruptcy examiner Neal Batson. ...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 23, 2007

All the News That’s Fit to Sue

When you dial the New Orleans office of Kahn Gauthier Swick LLC, an automated greeting kicks on: “Thank you for calling Kahn Gauthier Swick, the law firm featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other nationally prominent media.”The greeting seems appropriate give...

By John P. Mello Jr. • Jan. 23, 2007

Enron Prison Terms: First In, First Out

The first Enron executive to be sent to prison, former treasurer Ben Glisan Jr., was expected to complete his confinement on Friday, according to published accounts.In September 2003, Glisan pleaded guilty to a single count of criminal conspiracy and was immediately sentenced to five years in a f...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 19, 2007

Face Time

Investors are increasingly demanding corporate information from the horse’s mouth — so much so that 40 percent of CFOs expect to spend more time on investor relations this year.“Personal contact is a key differentiator,” says Bill Bruno, senior vice president at Greenwich Associates, which recent...

By Lori Calabro • Jan. 18, 2007

SEC Sues Three Former ConAgra Execs

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against three former executives of a ConAgra Foods subsidiary in connection with an alleged scheme to inflate earnings in 1999 and 2000.Named were James Charles Blue, former president and chief operating officer of ConAgra Agri Produc...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 17, 2007

Prosecutors Drop Equinix Options Probe

Equinix announced that the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California has withdrawn its grand jury subpoena requesting documents relating to the company’s stock option grants and practices.The telecommunications company, which provides data centers and Internet exchange services, was o...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 17, 2007