EU Fines Dow, Four Others

The European Commission fined five companies a total of $682 million for fixing the price of synthetic rubber used to make tires, including U.S.-based Dow Chemical, according to the Associated Press. The other four companies were Royal Dutch Shell plc, Eni SpA, Unipetrol AS and Trade-Stomil, acco...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 29, 2006

How Do We Reduce Misstatements?

While you’re making lists for the holiday season, here’s one more to consider: Suggestions from corporate financial executives about how to cut down on the number of restatements. Earlier in the year, the Securities and Exchange Commission asked executives to submit ideas that would help squelch ...

By Helen Shaw • Nov. 27, 2006

Ford Sales in Syria, Sudan Are Questioned

The Securities and Exchange Commission has raised disclosure issues with regard to Ford Motor operations in several countries deemed by the U.S. to be state sponsors of terrorism. In a letter fired off on July 5—but released last Friday by the regulator—the Commission asserted that the automaker’...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 27, 2006

Former EDS CFO Headed to Prison

Another finance executive is headed to prison. Joseph Amato, the former chief financial officer of Electronic Data Systems’ Global Securities Industry Group was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for the role he played in a scheme to defraud EDS out of millions of dollars, according to t...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 22, 2006

Prosecutors Drop Fight to Convict Lay

Federal prosecutors have chosen to abandon their appeal of U.S. District Judge Sim Lake’s ruling last month vacating fraud and conspiracy charges against the late Kenneth Lay for his role in Enron’s collapse, according to the Associated Press.The judge said the death of Lay, the founder of the...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 21, 2006

Former Capital One CFO to Pay $1.8 Million

A former chief financial officer of Capital One Financial agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle insider trading charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission.The regulator filed its complaint against David M. Willey in July 2004, alleging he traded securities of the bank holding company knowin...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 21, 2006

On Message

The scene on July 31st this year was reminiscent of the face-off between Gordon Gekko and Teldar Paper executives at the stockholders meeting in the 1980s film Wall Street, with billionaire investor Nelson Peltz in the Gekko role, and Heinz CEO William Johnson leading the somewhat hapless executi...

By Tony McAuley • Nov. 20, 2006

Two More Enron Officials Sent to Prison

Two more former Enron Corp. executives, including a key assistant to former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, were sentenced on Friday for their roles in the 2001 collapse of the onetime energy giant. However, they each received much lighter sentences than the maximum allowed.Michael Kopper,...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 17, 2006

Rule Britannia

Sarbanes-Oxley is one American creation the British are taking pains not to import. UK Economic Secretary to the Treasury Ed Balls made that point clear when he recently proposed granting new powers to Britain’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority. In an effort to preserve Brita...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Nov. 17, 2006

Skilling to Start His Prison Term Next Month

Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who has been confined to his Houston home since his sentencing last month, is scheduled to begin his prison term of 24 years and four months in mid-December. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Simeon Lake ordered Skilling to surrender to a federal prison in Wasec...

By Sarah Johnson • Nov. 16, 2006

Dell Faces Formal SEC Probe

Dell said the Securities and Exchange Commission’s informal probe into certain accounting and financial reporting matters has been turned into a formal investigation. The computer maker did not elaborate and did not identify the accounting matter.However, Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn told CFO.co...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 16, 2006

Hot on the Press

The internet is generally regarded as a threat to the media industry as a whole, with newspapers as its first victims. So at first glance it looks odd that, on October 23rd, at least three private-equity firms reportedly made initial bids to buy the Tribune Group, a conglomerate with a market cap...

By Economist Staff • Nov. 16, 2006

Ex-Enron Accounting Exec Gets 5 Years

The last of the alleged key architects of Enron’s massive accounting scandal is headed to prison for his role in the scandal. Richard Causey, the company’s former chief accounting officer, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, according to the Associated Press. This is six fewer month...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 15, 2006

New 10-K Deadline Pressures Firms

The new, shorter quarterly filing deadline that looms for large companies with a public float of at least $700 million will bring yet another challenge for finance departments—and could cause more companies to request filing extensions.The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Form 10-K deadline f...

By Helen Shaw • Nov. 15, 2006

San Diego Settles SEC Pension Charges

The city of San Diego settled charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose to investors important information about its pension and retiree health care obligations when it sold municipal bonds in 2002 and 2003. Under the settlement, the city agreed to cease and desi...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 14, 2006

Ex-Enron Finance Exec May Get Reprieve

The former chief financial officer of Enron’s shuttered broadband unit will probably spend a lot less time in prison than he had originally anticipated. The government has recommended to toss aside four of five federal convictions against Kevin Howard because it doesn’t believe the charges will s...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 14, 2006

Under The Microscope

First it was hedge funds, now private-equity firms. From the executive suites of Europe’s biggest companies to the bureaucratic cubicles of Washington, DC, there are growing calls for stricter oversight of buy-out firms, which lately have marched from one big takeover to another. The most recent ...

By Economist Staff • Nov. 14, 2006

Please Don’t Feed the Politicians

Next election cycle, when an employee makes a personal political contribution,beware: it could harm a company’s ability to win government contracts.Many municipalities and some states are passing so-called pay-to-play rules that aredesigned to discourage contractors, and in some cases their execu...

By Helen Shaw • Nov. 14, 2006

A Triple Play in IP Valuation

Branding products may not be his forte. But Rick Nathan seems to have a pretty good handle on valuing brands—and other intellectual property. Nathan, a senior managing director with Trenwith Valuation, has come up with relatively new methodology for valuing IP assets, but he doesn’t have a name f...

By Marie Leone • Nov. 13, 2006

On the Record: ABN Amro’s Former CFO

Tom De Swaan considers himself lucky. Back in the late 1990s, when he left his job at the Dutch Central Bank to become CFO of ABN Amro, he says investor relations in continental Europe was still in the early stages of development. “I was fortunate that I could learn on the job,” he says. He recko...

By Janet Kersnar • Nov. 13, 2006

Fastow Heads to Louisiana

Andrew Fastow, the former CFO of Enron, will spend the next six years in a Louisiana federal prison 200 miles northeast of Houston, reports the Associated Press. Fastow, who was assigned to the facility on Thursday, was hoping to serve his time at a federal prison in Bastrop, Texas, about 30 mile...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 10, 2006

Former Ahold Exec May Face Life in Jail

Mark Kaiser, the former marketing chief of Royal Ahold NV’s U.S. unit, was convicted of conspiracy, securities fraud, and four counts of making false financial filings after a four-week trial in New York federal court, according to Bloomberg.The conviction could spawn one of the stiffest sentence...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 9, 2006

SEC Settles With Five NextCard Execs

Five former executives of a failed dotcom company NextCard, including two former finance executives, have agreed to pay a total of about $1.4 million to settle civil charges that they engaged in alleged financial reporting fraud to conceal the deteriorating health of the company.According to the ...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 9, 2006

Martha Stewart to Pay $5M to Settle Suit

Martha Stewart is prepared to pay $5 million of her own money to settle a $30 million class action suit that accused her of lying about her sale of stock in ImClone Systems Inc. in 2001, according to a regulatory filing by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO).About $15 million is expected to be ...

By Stephen Green • Nov. 9, 2006

Two Steps over the Line?

Corporations have long complained about the methods federal prosecutors use to gain cooperation in white-collar investigations. Now those complaints have been voiced both on the federal bench and in Congress.In September, a Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on certain provisions of the Dep...

By Joseph McCafferty • Nov. 9, 2006