No Poaching from KPMG, Say Audit Firms

It appears that the Big Four are willing to put the industry’s future ahead of their own profits.Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers have reportedly ordered their partners not to poach clients from their battered rival KPMG while it resolves federal litigation pro...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 24, 2005

PwC to Pay $18M in Telxon Settlement

Bar-code company Symbol Technologies Inc. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Telxon Corp. will receive $18 million from PricewaterhouseCoopers to settle a case against its former auditor over the alleged mishandling of its books.Telxon sued PwC in 2001 for the audit firm’s role in the com...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 24, 2005

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

FASB Proposes a Few Touch-ups

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s plan to revise Financial Accounting Standard 140, Accounting for Transfers and Servicing of Financial Assets and Extinguishment of Liabilities, received a push in February, when mortgage lender Countrywide Financial fell afoul of its provisions and was f...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 22, 2005

SEC Charges Ex-Execs of Bristol-Myers

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against two former executives of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. stemming from an accounting scandal at the drug giant. Frederick S. Schiff, a former chief financial officer, and Richard J. Lane, a former president of Bristol’s Worldwi...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 22, 2005

Late Filings Remain High: Glass, Lewis

The high number of filing delays in the first quarter of 2005 have continued in the second, according to a new report from Glass, Lewis & Co.For the quarter ended June 30, a total of 77 companies with a market cap in excess of $100 million filed for an extension, precisely as many as for the ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 22, 2005

Scrushy Civil Charges Proceed, for Now

U.S. District Judge Inge Johnson has turned down Richard Scrushy’s attempt to have civil charges against him dismissed, according to press reports.In November 2003, a civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission was put on hold when federal prosecutors pursued criminal charges aga...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 19, 2005

Inventory: How Fast Is Too Fast?

Every time a brightly colored ball bursts out of an air rifle and splatters red, green, or blue paint all over someone’s shirt, Tod George knows his supply chain is in good shape. George is the CFO of Matric Ltd., a $30 million contract manufacturer in Seneca, Pennsylvania, that provides loaded c...

By Marie Leone • Aug. 18, 2005

Lawsuits for Symbol, Former Executives

Fresh off a major accounting scandal, bar-code company Symbol Technologies Inc. is facing a new round of litigation.The Holtsville, New York-based company, as well as former chief executive officer William Nuti and former chief financial officer Mark Greenquist, are the targets of at least four c...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 18, 2005

Restatement Likely for Service Corp.

Service Corp. International, the world’s largest operator of cemeteries and funeral homes, announced that it will probably restate its results for each year going back to 2000 and for the first quarter of this year. For the second time this month, SCI also sought more time to file its quarterly r...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 17, 2005

United Rentals CFO Fired

United Rentals Inc.’s chief financial officer has been fired after refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the company’s accounting practices.According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, United Rentals terminated John Milne, the president, CFO, chief ac...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 16, 2005

Reporting on Guaranteed Investment Contracts

Proposed FASB staff position AAG INV-a pertains to stable value funds — investments held as part of an employee benefit package and valued at a set price per share — and amends guidance issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The staff position, which is scheduled to tak...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 15, 2005

PNC to Settle Shareholder Lawsuit

PNC Financial Services Group has proposed settling a shareholder class-action lawsuit stemming from its 2001 accounting scandal, according to press reports.Attorneys for investors and Pittsburgh-based PNC filed court papers asking Judge David S. Cercone of the Western District of Pennsylvania to ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 15, 2005

Shelter-Related Fraud Plea for Ex-Banker

A former New York banker has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the promotion of tax shelters, causing the federal government to lose hundreds of millions in tax revenues, according to the Associated Press.Domenick Degiorgio, who worked out of the Manhattan office of German bank Bayerische H...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 11, 2005

Sullivan Gets Five Years

Former WorldCom Inc. chief financial officer Scott Sullivan has been sentenced to five years in prison and three years of probation for his role in the telecom company’s $11 billion accounting fraud.Sullivan, who pleaded guilty in March 2004 to conspiracy, securities fraud, and filing false docum...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 11, 2005

Accounting Snag Delays Gateway Filing

Computer maker Gateway Inc. announced that it will delay the filing of its quarterly report due to the complexity of accounting issues stemming from its settlement with Microsoft Corp.In April, Gateway and Microsoft signed a $150 million agreement in which Microsoft agreed to fund certain Gateway...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 11, 2005

Committee Dunks Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme Doughnut Inc.’s special committee of two independent directors clearly didn’t sugarcoat its report on the company’s accounting practices.The report accused former Krispy Kreme executives of intentionally managing earnings, adding that the company “failed to meet its accounting and fi...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 10, 2005

Former WorldCom Controller Sentenced

Former WorldCom Inc. controller David Myers, a key witness at the trial of former chief executive officer Bernard Ebbers, was sentenced Wednesday to one year and one day in prison for his role in the telecom company’s massive fraud, according to the press reports.This is exactly the same sentence...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 10, 2005

WorldCom’s Yates Gets a Year and a Day

Buford “Buddy” Yates, WorldCom Inc.’s former director of general accounting, has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his role in the company’s $11 billion accounting fraud, according to press reports.Yates pleaded guilty to fraud in October 2002. “I came to believe that the adjustmen...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 9, 2005

GM Looks to Spend $1B on Parts in India

General Motors announced that by 2008, it will source $1 billion worth of auto parts from India each year, according to Dow Jones. This is more than eight times the $120 million the company currently spends on parts manufactured in that country.“Auto parts in India cost 25 percent to 30 percent l...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 8, 2005

Enron’s Derivative-Accounting Legacy

In 2002, when the Financial Accounting Standards Board came out with its recommendations in Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) Issue 02-3, “Issues Involved in Accounting for Derivative Contracts Held for Trading Purposes and Contracts Involved in Energy Trading and Risk Management Activities,” the...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 8, 2005

Greenberg Slams AIG, PwC on Restatement

Asserting the he followed proper accounting practices, Maurice Greenberg, the former chief executive of American International Group Inc., lambasted his former company for restating five years of earnings and criticized AIG’s auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, for not raising questions with the ins...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 5, 2005

Ex-WorldCom Accountant Gets Prison Time

Betty Vinson, a former accounting manager at WorldCom Inc., was sentenced Friday morning to five months in prison and five months of house arrest for her role in the $11 billion accounting fraud at the erstwhile telecommunications giant.Later in the day, Troy Normand, another former accounting ma...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 5, 2005

Mirant Creditors Sue Andersen

Arthur Andersen is once again the target of litigation, even though the former Big Five accounting firm exists, for the most part, in name only.Creditors are blaming the onetime auditing giant for the financial woes that plunged Mirant Corp. into bankruptcy, according to The Atlanta Journal-Const...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 4, 2005

Ex-KPMG Execs Could Face Crime Charges

As many as 20 former partners of KPMG LLP could face criminal charges tied to their roles in selling tax shelters in the 1990s, according to The Washington Post.Some of the people were members of the Big Four accounting firm’s senior-management team, the newspaper noted. KPMG has reportedly been ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 3, 2005

HealthSouth’s Chief Accountant Quits

Officials at HealthSouth Corp. announced yesterday that controller and principal accounting officer John Quille would resign to pursue other opportunities. The resignation will be effective as of August 12.CFO John Workman will assume the role of principal accounting officer, according to HealthS...

By Marie Leone • Aug. 2, 2005