If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be. . .

Data-entry errors, subcontractor snafus, three-day lags in “real-time”Web tracking systems, and the occasional head-scratcher as to where in theworld a given place actually is — such were the perils and pitfalls of the annual“Great Package Race.”Part logistics competition, part rite-of-spring for...

By Vincent Ryan • July 24, 2007

Broadcom, Samueli Face SEC Charges

Broadcom Corp. said that the Securities and Exchange Commission may charge both the company and its chairman in connection with an SEC investigation into its stock-option granting practices and related accounting issues. The semiconductor maker said in a regulatory filing that the company, and it...

By Stephen Taub • July 23, 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

When in the Course of Auditing Events

Two proposals that could change existing auditor independence rules will be discussed on Tuesday during an open meeting of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. One staff proposal aims to replace an interim independence standard that helps define independence; the other deals with standa...

By Sarah Johnson • July 23, 2007

CFO May Have Done Better with a CPA

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges against a former chief financial officer whose attorney noted that he might have done a better job had he been an accountant. The settlement with former SmartForce CFO David C. Drummond — who is currently Google’s chief legal officer — ca...

By Stephen Taub • July 20, 2007

Taxing Matter: Pall Launches Probe

Officials at Pall Corp. said the company is investigating the possibility it materially understated U.S. income tax payments, as well as its provision for income taxes in certain prior periods going back to the fiscal year ended July 31, 1999. The maker of filtration systems for industrial applic...

By Stephen Taub • July 20, 2007

Two at Take-Two Take Pleas

The former chief accounting office and former general counsel of Take-Two Interactive Software, the video game maker best known for the blockbuster “Grand Theft Auto” series, pled guilty to falsifying business records in connection with the improper backdating of employee stock options.Patti Tay,...

By Stephen Taub • July 20, 2007

A FAS 159 Bogey for Cadence

The chief executive of Cadence Financial Corp. is frustrated at the lack of consensus on fair-value accounting between standard setters and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Commenting on a Cadence restatement, CEO and chairman Lewis F. Mallory asserted “it was very disappointing” that the ...

By Stephen Taub • July 20, 2007

Accounting for Good People

Being interesting can be overrated. Accountants became suddenly intriguing in 2002 with the spectacular collapse of Arthur Andersen, because of its involvement in the scandals surrounding the fall of Enron. This added unwanted colour to a grey profession. Since then the surviving titans of accoun...

By Economist Staff • July 20, 2007

Bearing It All

To many investors, hedge funds are impenetrable “black boxes”, moving in mysterious ways and holding indecipherable positions. This week, however, investors in two troubled Bear Stearns hedge funds were given a peek under the lid. What they were shown was black indeed.Both funds had invested heav...

By Economist Staff • July 20, 2007

A Lexicon of Accounting Misdeeds

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s list of accusations against an ex-CFO and two former controllers at OM Group, a specialty chemical company, reads like a glossary of terms used in accounting fraud.Among the charges in the just-settled complaint against the three former finance officials w...

By Stephen Taub • July 19, 2007

Lam Research Reviews Its Stock-Option Dating

Lam Research Corp. said it has launched an internal review of its accounting and reporting related to employee stock-option grants and the procedures that government them.The Fremont, Calif.-based supplier of tools for making microchips said the review arose after its independent auditors, as par...

By Stephen Taub • July 19, 2007

CFO, CEO Inflated Revenue, SEC Charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the former CFO and ex-CEO of Quovadx, a small software company, with taking part in a fraudulent scheme to overstate software licensing revenue in 2003.The commission leveled its accusations against former company CFO Gary Scherping and former pr...

By Stephen Taub • July 19, 2007

El Paso Receives Wells Notice

El Paso Corp. announced Wednesday that it has received a “Wells notice” from the Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating that the SEC staff plans to recommend a civil enforcement action against the company and two of its subsidiaries. The SEC has been investigating the natural gas company ...

By Stephen Taub • July 18, 2007

Grant Thornton Resigns Usana Account

Usana Health Sciences, which is the target of a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry relating to allegations by scamster-turned-fraud-buster Barry Minkow, said Grant Thornton had resigned as Usana’s auditor. In a July 10 regulatory filing, the maker of personal care and weight management ...

By Stephen Taub • July 18, 2007

Ex-Accountant Settles Charges of Faking Earnings

A ex-accountant at an Irish unit of a former U.S. public company settled charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he and two other officials of the subsidiary cooked the books to hide the declining performance of Zomax Ireland.Under the terms of the settlement Paul Kearney, a form...

By Stephen Taub • July 17, 2007

Ain’t No Sunshine: SEC Probes Company

With the company under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Department and an ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service, Nature’s Sunshine Products may be facing a gloomy forecast.The SEC has started administrative proceedings against Nature’s Sunshine ...

By Stephen Taub • July 16, 2007

Judge Frees 13 ex-KPMG Employees

While doing so “only with the greatest reluctance,” a federal judge dismissed conspiracy and tax-evasion charges against 13 former KPMG employees after finding that their former employer shouldn’t have refused to pay their legal fees. In his ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said he...

By Stephen Taub • July 16, 2007

Rug Burn: Dixie Corrects Errors

Officials at the Dixie Group said the company restated its results for 2006, and the quarterly periods ended July 1, 2006 and September 30, 2006 to correct classification errors. The carpet and rug company reported that the errors included the classification of pension expenses and income tax pay...

By Stephen Taub • July 16, 2007

PCAOB, Aussies Link Up on Audit Probes

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission both signed on to a protocol statement aimed at boosting cooperation in overseeing auditors and public accounting firms that practice in the two regulators’ jurisdictionsSaid Mark Olson, the U.S...

By David Katz • July 16, 2007

Shaw Group Restates, Names New CFO

Engineering and construction heavy weight The Shaw Group will restate its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2007, reporting a loss of $23.8 million after taxes, an increase of $3.5 million from its previous filing, said interim chief financial officer Dirk Wild during a conference...

By Marie Leone • July 12, 2007

College CFO Finds Error, But It’s Too Late

Antioch College officials have credited the school’s chief financial officer with uncovering a $5 million accounting error – just a short time after he was hired last fall. Unfortunately, the discovery doubled the Ohio-based school’s projected deficit, and could push the troubled organization int...

By Sarah Johnson • July 11, 2007

Biotech Firm Replaces KPMG with Seidman

To cut costs, NeoPharm, a small biopharmaceutical, has switched from a Big Four auditor to a second-tier firm, CFO.com has learned. Last week, the company ended its two-year relationship with KPMG and named BDO Seidman as its principal audit firm. After a reorganization amid a failed clinical tri...

By Sarah Johnson • July 9, 2007

Internal Auditors: Checking Everyone But Themselves

As a result of an reporting error, the original July 9 version of this article incorrectly stated that a statistic in the report indicated that “staffing and future budget allocations for the teams are stagnant.” In fact, no statistic in the report suggested stagnation. CFO.com regrets the error....

By Sarah Johnson • July 9, 2007

Gov. Derails GAAP Use for Connecticut Budget

A stand-off over generally accepted accounting principles, pitting Governor M. Jodi Rell against State Comptroller Nancy Wyman has, has bubbled up in Connecticut. On July 6, Rell vetoed legislation that would have named the state comptroller as the key arbiter of GAAP and thereby gived Wyman the ...

By Marie Leone • July 9, 2007

PwC Settles Tyco Case for $225M

PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to settle a class-action suit with Tyco International shareholders for $225 million. The amount will be tacked on to Tyco’s own settlement with the investors for nearly $3 billion, announced one month ago.Plaintiffs in the case against Tyco had charged that PwC w...

By Sarah Johnson • July 6, 2007