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

Indicted CFO: PwC Knew We Backdated

Former executives caught up in the backdating scandal have either deflected blame onto other employees or claimed the practice of assigning an earlier date to a stock option grant is not illegal. Now, the ex-CFO of a defense contractor claims he shouldn’t be charged for fraudulently backdating op...

By Sarah Johnson • July 5, 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

Control Gaps in China Spawn Restatement

As a result of control deficiencies that have cropped up the Suzhou, China subsidiary of Anaren Inc., a supplier to the wireless and satellite electronics sectors, will probably restate previously reported financials.For the nine months ended March 31, 2007, the Syracuse, N.Y.-based company overs...

By Stephen Taub • July 3, 2007

SEC Proposes Independence from GAAP

Just in time for the Fourth of July holiday, the Securities and Exchange Commission released beach reading for CFOs: a 121-page document proposing that foreign companies will no longer have to reconcile their financials with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The proposal isn’t just ...

By Sarah Johnson • July 3, 2007

SEC Charges Five with Lies at Veritas

For former Veritas Software Corp. CFO Kenneth Lonchar, the trouble started in the fall of 2002. That’s when it was discovered that he never actually obtained his MBA from Stanford University, as his resume said. Now Lonchar, who resigned after the disclosure of the faked credential, is in more tr...

By Alan Rappeport • July 3, 2007

Seeds of Change

Business in America’s corn belt hasn’t looked this good in a long while. Demand is booming, and so are the farmers’ incomes — at $4 a bushel, the price of corn recently hit a ten-year high, double the price of just a few years ago. It’s not surprising that researchers at the University of Iowa ju...

By Janet Kersnar • July 3, 2007

Ex-ConAgra Finance Execs Settle Accounting Charges

Four former finance executives at ConAgra Foods have settled civil charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission that stemmed from allegedly improper accounting practices. The four ex-officials of the packaged-food company include former CFO James O’Donnell, former corporate controllers Jay...

By Stephen Taub • July 2, 2007

Ex-Controller Settles Kickback Charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled civil fraud charges against a former finance executive of Sourcecorp Inc. for his role in a kickback scheme to overstate earnings as a way boost another individual’s bonus. Michael W. Sulfridge, the former controller of Image Entry Inc., a wholly own...

By Stephen Taub • July 2, 2007

All’s Not Right at International Rectifier

International Rectifier Corp. fired long-time CFO Michael P. McGee on Sunday, several months into the company’s internal investigation into accounting irregularities at one of the firm’s foreign subsidiaries.Reached at the company’s El Segundo, Calif., headquarters, a spokesman told CFO.com that ...

By Kate Plourd • July 2, 2007

Daniel Goelzer Reappointed to PCAOB

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has re-appointed Daniel Goelzer for a second, five-year term as a board member of the audit firm overseer. Soon after learning his re-appointment was official, Goelzer told the PCAOB’s advisory group that he considered working with the board to be a “...

By Sarah Johnson • July 2, 2007

IMAX Delays Showtime Again for Financials

IMAX Corp. missed the June 30 deadline it had set for itself for the already-delayed filing its 2006 annual report and first quarter report for 2007, but said it would file the reports shortly. In March, the Mississauga, Ontario-based entertainment-technology company and theatre operator warned t...

By Stephen Taub • July 2, 2007

A Case of Overstuffing Plush-Toy Values

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled civil charges with two former CVS Caremark Corp. finance executives over a scheme that involved overvaluing the former CVS Corp.’s inventory of stuffed animals seven years ago. Without admitting or denying the allegations, former controller and princ...

By Stephen Taub • July 2, 2007

Growing Problems: The 2007 Working Capital Survey

Read the complete results of the 2007 working capital survey, or review just those results that appeared in print.Maybe it’s globalization. As U.S. companies source more goods from the far corners of the world, it makes sense that they would stock more inventory as a guard against potential break...

By Randy Myers • July 1, 2007

Money Mechanics

Read the complete results of the 2007 working capital survey, or review just those results that appeared in print.Despite challenging conditions, the three-man team driving an Audi R10 sports car won the Le Mans 24-hour motor race in June, giving the German carmaker its seventh title in eight yea...

By Jason Karaian • July 1, 2007

Grant Thornton Fires Back at PCAOB Criticism

During its inspection of Grant Thornton’s 2005 audits, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board found several audit deficiencies in the firm’s work at eight companies — including one instance that triggered a restatement. The PCAOB’s finding, in turn, triggered an unusually sharp response fr...

By Sarah Johnson • June 29, 2007

Bankruptcy Court Sides with Dana

Score one for Dana Corp. The auto-parts supplier, which is trying to work out a deal with creditors so it can emerge from bankruptcy, won a key pricing dispute with one of its own suppliers. The win in bankruptcy court allows Dana to continue its shipments of parts used in Ford and Nissan vehicle...

By Stephen Taub • June 29, 2007

Sentencing Starts for Former Enterasys Finance Execs

Two of four former Enterasys Networks finance executives who expected to be sentenced to prison terms on Friday for their role in a revenue-recognition scheme have learned their fate.Late last year, the ex-executives were convicted by a federal jury on securities fraud and conspiracy charges that...

By Stephen Taub • June 29, 2007

Global Norming

For global companies, taxation offers a strong dose of good news/bad news. “Complexity and asymmetry across jurisdictions,” says a recent report from Ernst & Young, present “problems for an increasing number of companies and can result in traps for both the wary and the unwary.” That’s the ba...

By Kayleigh Karutis • June 28, 2007

Foundry Sculpts a Return to Compliance

Foundry Networks Inc.’s June 14 filing of its 2006 10-K and two quarterly reports has returned the Santa Clara, Calif.-based networking equipment company to compliance with Nasdaq market rules. The networking equipment company said that it is once again in compliance with Nasdaq Stock Market rule...

By Stephen Taub • June 27, 2007

How to Simplify Accounting in One Year

The Securities and Exchange Commission has established a committee to figure out how to take complexity out of financial reporting. Headed by Robert Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management, the group will submit a report to the SEC by next August. The advisory committee’s tasks include looki...

By Sarah Johnson • June 27, 2007

CFOs in a Dead Heat on Allowing IFRS

Finance executives split 50/50 on allowing U.S. companies to use International Financial Reporting Standards rather than U.S. GAAP, according to Financial Executives International’s second-quarter CFO Outlook Survey. It also detected continuing deterioration in expectations for capital spending,...

By Roy Harris • June 27, 2007

Comverse’s Alexander: Backdating Not a Crime

Jacob Alexander, the founder and former chief executive officer of Comverse Technology asserts that backdating stock options is not illegal. He also explains that he relied on the advice of experts such as lawyers and accountants regarding his former company’s options awards, according to his law...

By Stephen Taub • June 27, 2007

Auditor Resigns over Rotation Rule

As the Sarbanes-Oxley Act approaches its fifth anniverary, some small independent auditors may soon feel a squeeze from the legislation’s “audit partner rotation” rule. Independent accounting firm Cordovano and Honeck LLP has cited the rotation rule as the reason it severed ties with Signature Le...

By Alan Rappeport • June 27, 2007

Are Captive REITs Kaput?

A growing number of state officials aretaking aim at an entity known as captivereal estate investment trusts. Their claim?That a captive REIT’s sole purpose is toenable companies to shirk state incometaxobligations. In their sights are companieslike AutoZone and Wal-Mart.While captive REITs come ...

By Karen M. Kroll • June 27, 2007

IBM Settles Equipment-leasing Charges

IBM agreed to pay $7 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation related to alleged accounting fraud at Dollar General, a customer of the computer giant. In a separate case, IBM also settled its own books and records violations charges.In addition, Kevin B. Collins, an IB...

By Stephen Taub • June 26, 2007