HIPAA e-Rule Surprises Small Businesses

U.S. law has protected the privacy of employee health data since 1996. But until last year, the appearance of that data on company computer screens was mostly protected by rules of thumb, like so-called “cleaning woman” and “shoulder surfing” policies. In both cases, company policies generally en...

By Marie Leone • April 20, 2006

Prosecution Wraps Up Skilling Cross-exam

Examine our Enron archiveOn Wednesday, former Enron chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling made it through a third day of questioning by prosecutor Sean Berkowitz, then was handed over to defense attorney Daniel Petrocelli for re-direct.Skilling, on trial with former chairman Kenneth Lay, is ex...

By Stephen Taub • April 19, 2006

Skilling Defends $200 Million Asset Move

Examine our Enron archiveJeffrey Skilling challenged assertions by the prosecution that he transferred the trading portion of Enron’s retail division in the first quarter of 2001 to hide $200 million in losses, according to the Associated Press.On a third day of cross-examination by prosecutor Se...

By Stephen Taub • April 19, 2006

Prosecutor, Skilling Spar over Earnings

Examine our Enron archiveTense exchanges between prosecutor Sean Berkowitz and former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling grew testier on Tuesday during cross-examination on the company’s quarterly earnings. The period in question was the second quarter of 2000. The issue: whether Skilling directed Enron ...

By Stephen Taub • April 18, 2006

Skilling Feels Pressure on Cross-exam

Examine our Enron archiveThe prosecution continues to pressure former Enron chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling about the partnership deals known as the Raptors, and on Tuesday, the pressure began to show.On Skilling’s second day of cross-examination, prosecutor Sean Berkowitz accused him of...

By Stephen Taub • April 18, 2006

What Enron Analysts Knew, and When

Examine our Enron archiveProsecutor Sean Berkowitz and former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling were at odds Monday afternoon over what analysts knew about the company’s financial health, and when they knew it.During the first afternoon of cross-examination, Berkowitz scoffed at Skilling’s assertion tha...

By Stephen Taub • April 17, 2006

Government Puts No Stock in Skilling Story

Examine our Enron archiveProsecutor Sean Berkowitz began his cross-examination of Jeffrey Skilling on Monday by asserting that the former Enron CEO and his co-defendant, Kenneth Lay, were the “captains of the ship” and that Skilling has his “hand firmly on the wheel,” reported the Houston Chronic...

By Stephen Taub • April 17, 2006

Skilling Rails against Government’s Case

Examine our Enron archiveFormer Enron Corp. chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling railed against prosecutors for “re-writing history” by twisting the facts surrounding the former energy giant’s collapse, according to several published reports.As his attorney Daniel Petrocelli continued going d...

By Stephen Taub • April 13, 2006

Skilling Defense Picks Away at Charges

Examine our Enron archiveDaniel Petrocelli, the lead defense attorney for Jeffrey Skilling, stepped his client point by point through a number of the prosecution’s 28 charges during Wednesday afternoon testimony.The former Enron chief executive officer took issue with the testimony of David Delai...

By Stephen Taub • April 12, 2006

LJM ”Horrible Idea,” Skilling Says Now

Examine our Enron archiveIn retrospect, the controversial LJM partnerships were a “horrible idea,” former Enron chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling told jurors on his third day of testimony, according to The Washington Post.He tempered that judgment by referring to them as a “bad idea,” adde...

By Stephen Taub • April 12, 2006

Is SOX Driving Small Companies Overseas?

Is increased initial public offering activity overseas the result of regulatory burdens in the U.S.? On Wednesday, members of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies fretted over that question as they discussed the SEC’s implementation of the Sarban...

By Helen Shaw • April 12, 2006

Why Leave 404 to Your Auditors?

Perhaps much of the cost and burden of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could be eliminated if a company’s auditors weren’t the only ones who could attest to its internal controls. That controversial idea was one of three new proposals discussed at a Securities and Exchange Commission committee meeting on ...

By Marie Leone • April 12, 2006

LJM Was A-OK, Says Skilling

Examine our Enron archiveFormer Enron chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling acknowledged on Tuesday that the controversial LJM partnerships posed a conflict of interest because they were run by then-CFO Andrew Fastow, according to published accounts. Skilling insisted, however, that both he an...

By Stephen Taub • April 11, 2006

Skilling Bats Away More Allegations

Examine our Enron archiveOn his second day on the witness stand, former Enron chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling refuted several key allegations of prosecutors, who have charged him with 28 criminal counts of fraud and conspiracy.Under questioning by his lawyer Daniel Petrocelli, Skilling d...

By Stephen Taub • April 11, 2006

Skilling on Sarbox: ”We Had It Before”

Examine our Enron archive“It’s funny that Sarbanes-Oxley, that’s one of the protections to make sure there isn’t another Enron, we had it before,” maintained former Enron chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling on his first day of testimony, according to the Houston Chronicle.Skilling — on trial...

By Stephen Taub • April 10, 2006

”I Am Absolutely Innocent,” Says Skilling

Examine our Enron archiveIn his first few moments of testimony at his criminal trial, former Enron chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling summed up his situation. “In some ways, my life is on the line,” he told jurors Monday.As co-defendant Kenneth Lay looked on, Skilling insisted that “I am ab...

By Stephen Taub • April 10, 2006

Compliance Systems Eye the Inbox

“Loose lips sink ships,” a familiar warning to servicepeople and civilians during World War II, counseled Americans against the dangers of careless talk. Similar admonitions apply in Corporate America today, except that the “talk” very often takes place on a company’s E-mail servers, and the “shi...

By Esther Shein • April 10, 2006

CFO Whistle-blower Still in Limbo

The Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board has affirmed a judge’s order that a bank must rehire a former CFO who was the nation’s first Sarbanes-Oxley whistle-blower, but it doesn’t seem to have settled the matter.In late 2002, David Welch was fired as chief financial officer of Floyd,...

By Alix Stuart and Stephen Taub • April 10, 2006

Lay “Focused on Grand Policy”

Examine our Enron archiveFormer Enron general counsel James Derrick spent his second day on the stand Thursday, helping defense attorneys distance former chief executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay from former CFO Andrew Fastow and the controversial partnerships that he created to help shie...

By Stephen Taub • April 6, 2006

News Corp. Settles Poison-Pill Suit

A group of international institutional investors and News Corporation have reached a settlement of the investors’ lawsuit demanding that shareholders be allowed to vote on the company’s extension of a poison-pill provision. The deal came just two weeks before a scheduled trial was to have begun i...

By Stephen Taub • April 6, 2006

Is Seaboard Back?

The Securities and Exchange Commission dropped two previously announced probes this week, both involving mid-size companies that conducted internal investigations.The moves suggest that the SEC’s so-called Seaboard policy, in which companies can earn leniency by self-reporting misdeeds and cooper...

By Stephen Taub • April 6, 2006

Why Earnings Guidance Can Be Bad for Corporate Health

U.S. companies are of two minds about the wisdom of providing earnings guidance. The majority now do so, viewing the quarterly ritual as a necessary, if sometimes onerous, part of investor relations. The benefits, they hope, are lower share-price volatility and higher valuations. At a minimum, co...

By S.J. Rajan and Tim Koller • April 6, 2006

Defense Tries to Discredit Watkins

Examine our Enron archiveA lawyer who had investigated claims of accounting problems at Enron made by Sherron Watkins reportedly disparaged her testimony today during the trial of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. Max Hendrick III, a lawyer with Vinson & Elkins LLP, said many of the famed whistle bl...

By Stephen Taub • April 5, 2006

Small-Company Execs Sound Off on 404

The participant list is still a work in progress. Judging by the comment letters on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website, however, the SEC’s upcoming Section 404 roundtable will feature a great deal of heated talk about how hard and costly it is for small companies to comply with the ...

By Marie Leone • April 5, 2006

Enron Defense Still Playing Small Ball

Examine our Enron archiveFor a second straight day, attorneys for Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling called a succession of witnesses to pick away at the prosecution’s case. During much of the morning, the defense — minus Lay attorney Mike Ramsey, who is scheduled for carotid artery surgery on Wedn...

By Stephen Taub • April 4, 2006