Micron Settles Price-Fixing Suit

Micron Technology has announced a proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by certain purchasers of its dynamic random access memory (DRAM) computer chips.Micron expects the settlement to result in an $80 million reduction in earnings for the fiscal first quarter of 2007, which it re...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 15, 2007

Comment on This

There was a lot of squawking this fall after European CFOs received comment letters from the Securities and Exchange Commission demanding additional information — sometimes lots of it — about how their International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)–based filings translate into U.S. generally ...

By Rob Garver • Jan. 15, 2007

SEC Sanctions Lattice Semiconductor

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a cease-and-desist order against Lattice Semiconductor for an accounting scandal that cost a finance executive his job.In October 2005, the SEC settled its case with Ronald Lee Hoyt, the semiconductor manufacturer’s former controller and director ...

By Sarah Johnson • Jan. 12, 2007

Accounting Firm Asks to Help Prosecutors

Canadian accounting firm RSM Richter is seeking to cooperate with a U.S. investigation into Conrad Black’s former holding company, Ravelston.In November 2005, Black and three other executives were indicted by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois of stealing $51.8 million from H...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 11, 2007

Feds File Charges in HP Spying Probe

The first federal charges have been filed in the Hewlett-Packard spying scandal.The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California accused Bryan C. Wagner, a Littleton, Colorado-based private investigator, of fraudulently obtaining private phone records of Hewlett-Packard director...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 11, 2007

Specter Re-ups Thompson Memo Battle

The debate over how a federal prosecutor considers a company’s cooperativeness in corporate crimes seemed like it had fizzled in December when the Justice Department revised its policy last month. But Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter isn’t letting the matter rest. Just a few days into the 11...

By Sarah Johnson • Jan. 10, 2007

Another Settlement in Ahold Scandal

The former controller of U.S. Foodservice (USF), a subsidiary of Dutch food conglomerate Royal Ahold, has agreed to pay $100,000 to settle fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.Suzanne Brown, who neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations, also agreed to a five-year bar...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 10, 2007

Former Qwest CFO Reaches Deal with SEC

Former Qwest Communications chief financial officer Robin Szeliga has reached a settlement in principle of a civil fraud lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, reported the Rocky Mountain News.Filed on Friday, the one-page court document disclosed few details, according to th...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 8, 2007

NYC Pensions Seek Vote on Pay

The New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS) is calling on Home Depot, Blockbuster Inc., and Par Pharmaceutical Cos. to allow shareholders to approve the compensation of senior executives. “Institutional investors are fed up with the unbridled excesses of executive compensation in the ...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 3, 2007

Class-Action Settlement Size Is Surging

Two studies published this week—>one from Stanford Law School, the other from NERA Economic Consulting—found that the number of shareholder class action suits were down dramatically in 2006. Even so, the size of settlements of existing cases soared past last year’s record levels, according to ...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 3, 2007

MetLife Settles with Spitzer for $19 Million

MetLife has agreed to pay $19 million to settle allegations by outgoing Attorney General Eliot Spitzer that the insurance giant paid brokers who steered clients to purchase insurance from the company.The largest life insurer in the United States also agreed to adopt a new compensation structure t...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 2, 2007

Securities Class-Action Suits Sharply Decline

Shareholders filed fewer lawsuits last year. The number of securities fraud class actions filed in 2006 plunged by 38 percent, to a total of 110 filings, from 178 the prior year, according to an annual review by the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, a joint project betwee...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 2, 2007

Best of 2006: Law and Order

Stories of corporate crime — and punishment — ran the gamut this year, from the chilling 24-year sentence of Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay’s sudden death after being convicted to Scott Sullivan’s empty pockets and the sale of Dennis Kozlowski’s multi-million-dollar mansion to pay his debts...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 29, 2006

Political Spending Disclosures Increase

Verizon Communications, Monsanto, and General Dynamics are the three latest large companies to agree to disclose some or all political spending made with corporate funds, according to a joint announcement last week from a number of shareholder activist groups. In addition, Monsanto and General Dy...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 27, 2006

Best of 2006: Risks and Benefits

Risk management, you’d think, isn’t the best topic to ponder during the holiday season. Terrorism, toxic waste, political and governance perils — they don’t sit well under the tree. But maybe finance chiefs can take solace in the fact that terrorism hasn’t hit these shores since 9/11 and that mos...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 26, 2006

SEC Doles Out $83 Million from Gemstar Case

The Securities and Exchange Commission said shareholders who were harmed by fraudulent accounting and disclosure practices at Gemstar-TV Guide International will begin receiving about $83 million in cash and stock under the “Fair Funds” provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.The funds include $22.3 ...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 26, 2006

Hard Landings?

Not everyone is flying high about lower oil prices.The cooling in jet-fuel costs since last summer sounds like good news, but it caught some airline-hedging programs off guard. Indeed, Alaska Air Group recorded a third-quarter loss of $17.4 million in October, partly due to losses tied to fuel-he...

By Lori Calabro • Dec. 26, 2006

SEC Opens Probe of a Fake News Release

The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation into a seemingly bogus press release that led to a rapid surge in a small outsourcing company’s stock price, according to the Associated Press.Early Wednesday, United Business Media’s PR Newswire distributed a news release stati...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 22, 2006

How Risk-Shifting Affects Earnings

With the Financial Accounting Standards Board looking to tighten risk-transfer rules, risk managers need to be on the alert for how their companies are accounting for insurance policies that may have significant loan provisions.Up until now, FASB zeroed in on insurers and had little to say about ...

By David Katz • Dec. 22, 2006

Ex-Bakery Finance Exec Settles with SEC

The former finance chief of the maker of Twinkies and Wonder bread has settled civil charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he overstated earnings due to the way he accounted for workers’ compensation expenses. The company—Interstate Bakeries—also settled the same charges with t...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 21, 2006

Four Former Enterasys Execs Convicted

Four former executives of Enterasys, including three former finance executives, were convicted by a federal jury on securities fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from a revenue recognition scheme, according to the Associated Press. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on five charges against...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 20, 2006

CFOs: No Risk of Crisis Looming

Many chief financial officers and managing directors at multinational companies don’t think their companies will experience a major crisis for the next three years. That a good thing. Because many more within that same group don’t believe their companies are prepared to handle a catastrophe.Indee...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 19, 2006

Guilty Plea in New Enron Scandal

In a case unconnected to the initial fraud that brought down the company, a former member of Enron Corp.’s human resources department pleaded guilty to defrauding the company of about $3 million, according to the Associated Press.Christian Deeb Rahaim, formerly senior director of benefits, admitt...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 18, 2006

Apple, Dell Delay Filings

Two of the world’s best-known technology companies are delaying the filing of their latest financial reports because of problems with options backdating.Apple Computer says it is unable to file its annual report for the fiscal year ended September 30 because it needs to restate prior financial st...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 15, 2006

Accountant Gets Death Penalty

A Chinese high court allowed the death penalty to stand for an accountant who was involved in defrauding bank customers out of hundreds of millions of dollars, reported the Associated Press. Earlier this week, accountant Liu Yibing, and Zhou Limin, the former head of the China Construction Bank b...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 14, 2006