Enron’s Rieker Calm During Cross-exam

Examine our Enron archivePaula Rieker, a onetime Enron Corp. corporate secretary who previously served as lieutenant to director of investor relations Mark Koenig, faced cross-examination on Wednesday at the trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.The day before, under questioning by the prosec...

By Dave Cook • Feb. 22, 2006

Board Was Misled, Too: Enron Exec

Examine our Enron archiveOnetime Enron managing director of investor relations Paula Rieker largely supported the testimony of her former boss, Mark Koenig, as the trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling resumed on Tuesday.On numerous occasions, her wide-ranging testimony went further. Regardin...

By Dave Cook • Feb. 21, 2006

They Can Get It for You Wholesale

When Harcourt Inc. was in the market for a new software package last year, it decided to get a little outside advice before it sealed the deal. The company turned to an Atlanta consultancy, NPI, made up primarily of former technology sales executives. NPI looked at the terms offered by the vendor...

By Scott Leibs • Feb. 21, 2006

Reporting for Separation of Duties, Sir!

In 2004, when Safety Components International Inc. began complying with Sarbanes-Oxley, controller Bill Nelli realized that the company needed a better way to manage the identities SCI’s 20 employees — specifically, their access rights to the corporation’s finance systems.To keep tabs on which wo...

By Helen Shaw • Feb. 21, 2006

British Trio Face Enron Charges in U.S.

Examine our Enron archiveThree British investment bankers face extradition to the United States and trial on Enron-related charges, reported the Financial Times.The trio argued unsuccessfully before their country’s High Court that since they are British citizens accused of crimes against a Britis...

By Dave Cook • Feb. 21, 2006

Business Continuity Sees Broad Response

More than 83 percent of companies have developed business continuity management programs, compared with only 30 percent of companies just six years ago, reported a new survey by Deloitte & Touche LLP and CPM Group.According to Deloitte and CPM, the heightened attention for business continuity...

By Dave Cook • Feb. 21, 2006

Home Depot Resists Subpoenas of Execs

The plaintiff’s lawyer in the Home Depot whistle-blower case wants to take depositions from several top company executives, including the chief financial officer. But so far the home-improvement giant is resisting, according to The New York Post, citing motions filed with the U.S. Department of L...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 17, 2006

Ex Broadband Exec Boosts Defense’s Case

Examine our Enron archive.The former head of Enron’s broadband business yesterday reportedly buttressed the defense’s case that special off-the-books partnerships received the seal of approval from the company’s board of directors as well as lawyers and accountants.Testifying under cross-examinat...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 16, 2006

Enron Witness: Partnerships Were Proper

Examine our Enron archive.The former head of Enron Corp.’s broadband unit has testified that one of the off-balance-sheet transactions created by former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow was proper, reports Bloomberg.In a second day of cross-examination, Mark Holscher, a lawyer for Jeffrey Sk...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 16, 2006

Investor Group Concerned about E-proxies

The Council of Institutional Investors has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to proceed slowly with proposed rules that would allow companies to post their proxies on the Internet, reported the Financial Times.The group, which represents pension funds with assets totaling more than $3 ...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 14, 2006

Broadband Exec: Skilling a Hands-on CEO

Examine our Enron archiveThe Enron prosecution’s second witness testified on Tuesday that former chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling justified the use of off-balance-sheet entities to help boost earnings at the company’s broadband unit.Kenneth Rice, the former chief executive officer of Enro...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 14, 2006

Re: Emails; Morgan Agrees to $15M Fine

Morgan Stanley disclosed that it has tentatively agreed to pay $15 million to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that the firm failed to retain e-mails.This is the largest fine the regulator has levied for failure to preserve records, reported The Wall Street Journal. The ne...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 14, 2006

Sarbox Takes a Constitutional

By challenging the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last week believe that they can spur the courts and Congress to undo the entire Sarbanes-Oxley Act.While many federal laws have a “severability” provision that enables Congress to ...

By David Katz • Feb. 14, 2006

Enron Defense Points Finger at Fastow

Examine our Enron archiveFormer Enron Corp. chief financial officer Andrew Fastow played a major role — at least in name — during testimony Monday at the trial of former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.Fastow came up during the fifth day of cross-examination of former investor-r...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 13, 2006

Bally, Dissidents Drop Suits

Bally Total Fitness and its two dissident shareholders have made peace.Both groups have agreed to drop pending lawsuits, ending a battle that started last year and resulted in a proxy fight at last month’s annual meeting. Company officials also announced the election of three director nominees su...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 10, 2006

“PIPEs” Plea for Deephaven

Officials at Deephaven Capital Management LLC, the asset-management subsidiary of Knight Capital Group Inc., have submitted a settlement offer to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve an investigation concerning trading activity associated with certain private investments in public eq...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 10, 2006

Property Insurance’s Uneven Price Blip

Ever since Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992, Scott Clark, the risk and benefits officer of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, has found it tough to buy enough property insurance to cover the system’s physical assets.After that storm, which caused the schools a $96 million loss, Clark st...

By David Katz • Feb. 9, 2006

What to Do When the Lights Go Out

The California brownouts of 2000, the August 2003 blackout in the Northeastern United States and central Canada, and Hurricane Katrina have shown how risky long-lasting electrical power interruptions can be.Prompted by such awareness — not to mention the heightened reporting pressures under Sarba...

By Helen Shaw • Feb. 9, 2006

CFOs Seek Sarbox Triage

Since its enactment in 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been impressing observers with its sweep. From banning executive loans and auditor conflicts of interest, to setting up financial sign-offs by top executives, to governing audit committees and whistle-blowers, Sarbox cuts a wide swath throug...

By David Katz • Feb. 9, 2006

AIG Agrees to $1.6 Billion Settlement

As widely expected, American International Group (AIG) has agreed to pay more than $1.6 billion to settle charges of fraud, bid-rigging, and improper accounting.The agreement was announced simultaneously by the New York State Attorney General, the New York Insurance Department, the Securities and...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 9, 2006

Second Mistrial Declared in Cendant Case

For the second time in 13 months, the proceedings against former Cendant Corp. chairman Walter Forbes ended in a mistrial after jurors could not come up with a unanimous verdict after 27 days of deliberations, reported Bloomberg. Forbes faces federal charges that he led the largest accounting fra...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 9, 2006

Enron Government Witness Gets Mad

Examine our Enron archive.Bearing down on government witness Mark Koenig, the lawyers for Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay once again pressed their case that no crimes were committed at Enron.Dan Petrocelli, Skilling’s attorney, went so far as to ask the former head of investor relations whether ...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 9, 2006

Enron Defense Goes to the Videotape

Examine our Enron archiveIt was matinee day at the trial of former Enron Corp. executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.Daniel Petrocelli, the lead attorney representing Skilling, devoted a big part of the day to playing audiotapes of analyst conference calls as well as a videotape of an emplo...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 8, 2006

Conservative Group Challenges Sarbox

A free-market advocacy group has filed a lawsuit that challenges the legal authority of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to police the accounting profession.The Free Enterprise Fund asserted in a press release that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 — the landmark legislation that create...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 8, 2006

Striking a Balance on the Build-Out

Thanks to a resurgence in mergers and acquisitions, 2005 was a very good year for Lane, Berry & Co. So good, in fact, that the small, scrappy investment-banking firm now faces one of the biggest challenges since its founding four years ago. Lane, Berry is racing to expand by adding 30,000 squ...

By P.B. Gray • Feb. 8, 2006