Revenue Recognition Recount

Diebold disclosed that it has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking documents in connection with a previously disclosed investigation into the company’s revenue recognition practices.In a regulatory filing, Diebold — which develops and manufactures automated tell...

By Stephen Taub • May 14, 2007

McAfee Ex-CFO Convicted of Fraud

Former McAfee chief financial officer Prabhat Goyal has been convicted of 15 criminal charges, including securities fraud, filing false reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and making false statements to auditors, according to federal prosecutors.The scheme caused Network Associat...

By Stephen Taub • May 11, 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

Herpes Drug-Cost Errors Spur Restatement

Biovail Corp. has restated its 2005 and 2006earnings upward because of an understatement stemming from a data error in tracking discounts in purchases of Zovirax, a drug used to treat herpes, according to the company. The revisions boosted earnings for those years by $10.2 million and $7.7 millio...

By Stephen Taub • May 10, 2007

IRS: New Century Owes $400 Million

New Century Financial Corp., the crumbling subprime mortgage lender, owes the U.S. government at least $400 million in taxes, according to the Associated Press, Mary Wright, an adviser with the Internal Revenue Service, told New Century creditors at a meeting on Tuesday that the company and sever...

By Stephen Taub • May 9, 2007

The FAS 159 Mulligan

By the time May rolled around, and the deadline for early adoption of an accounting standard known as FAS 159 passed, American companies had, for the most part, stuck to principles-based accounting. But it was touch-and-go there for a while.FAS 159, The Fair Value Option for Financial Assets and ...

By Marie Leone • May 8, 2007

Taxes Trip Up Toys ‘R’ Us Filings

Toys ‘R’ Us warned that it will delay the filing of its annual report because of a material weakness in its internal controls over income tax accounting.The company did not provide further details. But according to the Associated Press, spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said the tax issue was not expect...

By Stephen Taub • May 7, 2007

AS5 Could Trim Audit Bills by 10%

The revised auditing standard for internal control over financial reporting could bring cheaper auditing bills for large companies. Some publicly traded companies are estimating that their audit fees could be reduced by 10 percent if the proposed rule is adopted by the Public Company Accounting O...

By Sarah Johnson • May 4, 2007

KPMG Drops New Century

New Century Financial has disclosed that its outside auditor, KPMG, has resigned.The subprime lender, now in Chapter 11 liquidation proceedings, asserted that there were no disagreements with KPMG.New Century added that for 2004 and 2005, its financial statements, as well as audit reports on mana...

By Stephen Taub • May 4, 2007

PCAOB Finds Slip-ups in E&Y Audits

In its review of Ernst & Young’s 2006 audits, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board noted several audit deficiencies, including “some cases” where errors could be material to the financial statements of the auditor’s clients. Several times, the PCAOB notes, E&Y failed to provide p...

By Sarah Johnson • May 3, 2007

Hewitt: SEC No Threat to FASB

The Securities and Exchange Commission is no threat to the independence of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC’s chief accountant said at a conference Thursday.“FASB is independent as far as we are concerned,” said SEC chief accountant Conrad Hewitt. “We do not appoint board members...

By David Katz • May 3, 2007

IFRS or GAAP: Take Your Pick?

The Securities and Exchange Commission continues to seriously explore the possibility of allowing U.S. companies to report their financial results using international accounting standards.Speaking at a financial reporting conference in New York, SEC Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt said the SEC’s l...

By David Katz • May 3, 2007

Apex Silver Restates over Derivatives

Apex Silver Mines restated its financials for the quarter ended September 30, 2005, the year ended December 31, 2005, and the first three quarters of 2006 after determining that the method it had used to estimate the fair value of metals derivative positions was not appropriate.The cumulative und...

By Dave Cook and Stephen Taub • May 3, 2007

SEC Issues “Video Game Parking” Ticket

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled civil charges against a video game distributor and its founder for helping Take-Two Interactive Software commit fraud and other violations.The commission charged privately owned Capitol Distributing with helping Take-Two to violate federal securi...

By Dave Cook and Stephen Taub • May 3, 2007

Fannie Mae Clears Another Hurdle

Fannie Mae filed its 2005 10-K, and said that with the company nearing the point at which it is current with its financials, Robert T. Blakely would turn over the CFO’s job to former AOL finance chief Steven M. Swad. Blakely, who joined the embattled mortgage-lending giant to manage its restateme...

By Roy Harris • May 2, 2007

Broadcom Options Probe Intensifies

The federal probe of Broadcom’s stock-option practices is intensifying.In a regulatory filing, the semiconductor maker disclosed that it has produced documents in response to grand jury subpoenas. Broadcom also stated that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California has begu...

By Stephen Taub • May 2, 2007

Backing Off from the Fair-value Option

CIT Group disclosed that it will reduce first-quarter earnings by nearly $71 million, or 26 percent, after deciding not to be an early adopter of a new fair-value accounting standard.The commercial and consumer finance company had issued an earnings release on April 18 detailing its financials ba...

By Stephen Taub and Dave Cook • May 2, 2007

Ex-Tyco Finance Exec Settles SEC Charges

Edward Federman, former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Tyco Electronics, agreed to pay nearly $2.7 million to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding fraudulent accounting at Tyco International.Without admitting or denying the SEC allegations,...

By Stephen Taub • April 30, 2007

Not-so-sterling Financials

Sterling Financial will restate its results for at least the three years ending in 2006 after an internal investigation into irregularities in certain financing contracts at a subsidiary.According to the company, the subsidiary’s president and chief executive officer voluntarily relinquished his ...

By Stephen Taub • April 30, 2007

IFRS Revs Up DaimlerChrysler’s Earnings

Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission considers allowing companies to choose between U.S. and international accounting standards, DaimlerChrysler’s latest financial statements show that such a choice may have a sizeable impact on reported financial results.This quarter the company, which...

By Marie Leone • April 27, 2007

FASB, IASB Begin Rethinking Leases

The U.S. and international standard-setters are making slow but steady progress toward revising how public companies account for leases. Earlier this week, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board told their staffers to limit their initial work to ...

By Sarah Johnson • April 26, 2007

Herz: FASB Will “Guard” Its Autonomy

In the wake of reports suggesting that the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to exert more control over accounting standards, Robert Herz, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, conceded Thursday that recent events had created concerns on the board, but reaffirmed FASB’s...

By Marie Leone • April 26, 2007

Timberland Restates over Hedging

The Timberland Company said its accounting for foreign currency hedges will force a restatement.The footwear and apparel maker warned investors not to rely on annual or quarterly financial statements for the fiscal years 2001 through 2006. In addition, the company said it will restate its financi...

By Stephen Taub • April 26, 2007

U.S. GAAP: Riding Off into the Sunset?

By summer, the Securities and Exchange Commission will issue a proposal allowing foreign private issuers to file financial reports using either international financial reporting standards (IFRS) or U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP).U.S. issuers may soon have the same optio...

By Dave Cook and Stephen Taub • April 25, 2007

A Better Appreciation for Depreciation

Martek Biosciences will restate its financials for fiscal 2006 and the first quarter of fiscal 2007 to revise the way it depreciates assets held for future use.The $736 million market cap company, which makes nutritional oils for baby food and supplements, explained that it will now record deprec...

By Stephen Taub • April 25, 2007

Audit Firm Wants Jury Verdict Set Aside

PricewaterhouseCoopers has petitioned a Georgia court to set aside a jury verdict regarding the 1996 merger of nursing-home companies Convalescent Services and Mariner Health Group, according to the Fulton County Daily Report.“We believe the plaintiffs’ allegations of negligent misrepresentation...

By Stephen Taub and Dave Cook • April 25, 2007