Dell Restates, Reshuffling Finance

Two years after the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an informal probe into Dell’s accounting practices, the computer company has announced it will restate more than four years’ worth of financials. Divvying up accounting and financial reporting from planning and forecasting, the compa...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 16, 2007

PwC Settles $2.3M Kickback Charge

PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to pay $2.3 million to settle Department of Justice charges that the firm contributed to “improper” deals made on technology contracts with government agencies. The Justice Department alleged that PwC and IBM — which has also settled similar charges for $2.97 mil...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 16, 2007

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

Violent Femmes Are Blistered by the Sum

Accounting improprieties have been cited in a federal lawsuit involving members of the 1980s punk rock band the Violent Femmes. In the civil suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, bass player Brian Ritchie accused lead singer Gordon Gano of cheating him out of credit for some of the ban...

By Marie Leone • Aug. 16, 2007

Fear and Misunderstanding of the SEC

When Carol Stacey was a chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission, part of her job was educating companies on how to comply with the regulator’s rules. Problem was, some people have what she considers an undue fear of calling the SEC staff. ” I think there are misconceptions abo...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 15, 2007

Convertibles Stall Raptor

Raptor Networks Technology Inc announced Wednesday that it plans to restate its financial results because it incorrectly interpreted the accounting guidelines for convertible note and warrant financing transactions it conducted in July 2006 and January 2007. It also said it would delay its next q...

By Tim Reason • Aug. 15, 2007

CSC Blames Filing Delay on FIN 48

Computer Sciences Corp. will not be able to file its June quarterly results on time due to an accounting review. Company officials have yet to determine how FIN 48 will impact CSC’s financial statements and do not know when they will file the report for the quarter ending June 29.Passed more than...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 14, 2007

Beazer Says Ex-CAO May Have Violated GAAP

More woes for Beazer Homes USA. The embattled homebuilder said that it will delay the filing of its June quarterly report based on the findings of an internal probe into its mortgage origination business. The investigation revealed that Beazer’s former chief accounting officer, Michael T. Ran, ma...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 13, 2007

Diebold: Filing Hinges on SEC Guidance

Diebold’s revenue-recognition problems seem to be mounting. The company, which develops and manufactures automated teller machines, security systems, and voting machines, said in a regulatory filing that it will delay the filing of its second-quarter financial report because it is seeking guidanc...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 10, 2007

Tax, Spreadsheet Slips Force Restatement

Symmetricom Inc. says it will restate its financial statements for the quarter, and nine months ended March 31, due to an error in accounting for income taxes. The error relates to an adjustment to purchase accounting based on the third-quarter liquidations of QoSmetrics SA and QoSmetrics Inc., w...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 10, 2007

Fannie, Heal Thyself

Accounting woes continue to plague Fannie Mae. The world’s largest mortgage company said in a regulatory filing that it will not report its June 30 quarterly results on time because it has not completed its financial statements for the period.In the filing, the company noted that it is still in t...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 10, 2007

Sale of DJ: Not Too Taxing for the Bancrofts

The agreement governing News Corp.’s $5-billion purchase of Dow Jones & Co., generally presented in the media as an all-cash deal, actually includes an elaborate exchange-of-stock structure designed to give tax-free status to members of the Dow Jones-controlling Bancroft family.According to t...

By Roy Harris • Aug. 9, 2007

Nicor Ex-CFO Charged in LIFO Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against three former Nicor Inc. executives, alleging they were involved in a financial fraud scheme from 1999 to 2002.The commission alleges that in 1999, the three executives helped devise a way the Chicago-area natural gas distribut...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 9, 2007

What If IFRS Replaced GAAP?

The Securities and Exchange Commission is dabbling in the realm of speculation. At least for now, the questions from the five commissioners regarding the possibility of allowing U.S. companies to file financial statements using International Financial Reporting Standards remain just that: a possi...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 9, 2007

Electro Scientific’s Ex-Controller Pleads Guilty

James E. Lorenz, former corporate controller of Electro Scientific Industries Inc., pled guilty to federal charges that he lied to auditors in connection with a scheme to falsely increase the company’s profits.He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine. Sentencing is s...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 8, 2007

Bank Settles Subprime FAS 140 Case

First BanCorp will pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $8.5 million to settle charges that it incorrectly represented more than $4 billion worth of transactions involving so-called non-conforming residential mortgages. The SEC has been investigating First BanCorp for two years, but amid th...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 7, 2007

Enron LJM Saga Continues

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges against two former Enron executives, including a former chief accounting officer, for the role they played in a sham transaction involving a Brazilian power plant. Jerry K. Castleman, the chief accountant for Enron South America, and Kathleen...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 7, 2007

Insight Communicates the Need to Restate

Insight Communications Co. said it will restate its 2006 annual report to correct the accounting for non-cash income tax expense and deferred income taxes in prior years. The New York-based cable operator, which went private in 2005, said the prior accounting treatment caused it to understate its...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 7, 2007

Pasta Maker in Hot Water

A company that was earlier delisted for not filing its financial reports on time said it will further delay the delinquent filings. In May, American Italian Pasta Co. said it would file its annual reports for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2005, and for its fiscal year ended September 29, ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 6, 2007

FAS 140 Case Nearly Settled

A federal court has given preliminary approval for one of Puerto Rico’s largest financial institutions to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it had improperly accounted for mortgage loans. First BanCorp, a bank holding company based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, plans to pay off the $74.25 millio...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 6, 2007

Deloitte to Pay $167.5M in Adelphia Case

Deloitte & Touche has agreed to pay $167.5 million to settle a case with a trust that was formed after Adelphia Communications Corp. collapsed in 2002. The news comes just as former Adelphia CFO Timothy Rigas and his father, Adelphia founder John Rigas, head to federal prison.The Adelphia Rec...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 6, 2007

Overhauling the Old Jalopy

It is more than two decades since America led the world in tax reform, and what Ronald Reagan called “that old jalopy of our tax system” is looking in need of a lot more than a new spray of paint. Last week Hank Paulson, the treasury secretary, held a summit in Washington, DC, to address the part...

By Economist Staff • Aug. 6, 2007

Income Statement Elmo: Mattel’s Recall

The product recall of 1.5 million toys issued by Mattel Inc. is expected to reduce the toymaker’s pre-tax operating income by about $30 million, according to a regulatory filing released on Thursday. As a result, the company’s second-quarter financial results will be adjusted to reflect the charg...

By Marie Leone • Aug. 3, 2007

Pall Finds “Material” Tax Errors

Pall Corp. said it will restate some or all of its annual and quarterly financial reports for the fiscal years 1999 through 2006, and for the first three quarters of the current fiscal year. The adjustment is being made to correct the company’s previously announced understatement of U.S. income t...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 2, 2007

“Too Much GAAP Running Around”

Is there a direct link between the complexity of the U.S. financial reporting system and the rising number of restatements among public companies here?That was the major question hovering over the first meeting of a committee charged with figuring out how to simplify financial reporting. But the ...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 2, 2007

A Wild Ride

Speed. It’s about speed. That may seem ridiculously obvious — like saying the sun is a tad on the warm side. But to witness up close how cars accelerate out of a turn, their 800-HP engines thundering, the g-forces pinning drivers to their seats as they streak past the grandstand, is to understand...

By John Goff • Aug. 1, 2007