Rethink Off-Balance-Sheet Reporting: SEC

Accounting authorities should rethink current guidance on how to report the financial results of leases and defined-benefit pension plans and continue to explore the possibility “of reporting all financial instruments at fair value,” the Securities and Exchange Committee asserted in a long-awaite...

By Lisa Yoon • June 20, 2005

Deloitte May Face British Tax Probe

Deloitte & Touche is being probed as part of a larger investigation concerning possible tax avoidance at its audit client MG Rover, a collapsed British carmaker, according to The Times of London.According to the Times, the Accountancy Investigation and Discipline Board — an independent invest...

By Stephen Taub • June 17, 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

ConAgra Settlement Continues Safeguards

For the second time in two months, ConAgra Foods Inc. settled a lawsuit stemming from alleged accounting violations that led the company to restate three years of earnings, according to the Associated Press.Under the agreement with Harbor Financial Partners, ConAgra agreed to keep in place a numb...

By Stephen Taub • June 16, 2005

Bordering on Tax Evasion

In 1996, David and Carl Pasquantino began periodically telephoning a discount liquor store in Hagerstown, Maryland, to buy large quantities of cheap liquor. With help from an associate, Arthur Hilts, the Pasquantino brothers transported the liquor from Hagerstown to their hometown of Niagara Fall...

By Marie Leone • June 16, 2005

KPMG, DoJ in ”High-Wire Negotiations”

KPMG LLP, the world’s fourth-largest accounting firm, stated Thursday that is engaged in discussions with the Department of Justice to resolve a federal investigation into its tax shelter practices.The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department has put together a criminal case again...

By Stephen Taub • June 16, 2005

Bristol’s Former CFO Indicted

Two former executives have been indicted for their roles in an accounting scandal at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., and the company has agreed to the terms of a deferred-prosecution arrangement, according to Christopher J. Christie, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.Frederick S. Schiff, for...

By Stephen Taub • June 16, 2005

SEC Launches Formal Probe of OfficeMax

The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a formal probe of certain accounting practices at OfficeMax Inc.The office-products retailer announced that the investigation stems from the company’s internal probe of its accounting for vendor income. OfficeMax began that investigation in Dece...

By Stephen Taub • June 14, 2005

GAO Proposes Controls Remedies to FDIC

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), which had previously found several internal control issues that affected the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s accounting for the funds it administers, has issued several recommendations for how the FDIC can improve its accounting procedures and interna...

By Stephen Taub • June 14, 2005

Take-Two, Executives Settle with SEC

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., best-known for its blockbuster “Grand Theft Auto” series, and four executives have settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges stemming from an investigation into the company’s accounting practices, which spawned three restatements.The video-game maker —...

By Stephen Taub • June 13, 2005

FASB Weighs ‘Firm Offers,’ Stable-Value Assets

In a “firm offer” — sometimes called a “one-sided offer” — a company contacts a specific prospective purchaser and offers an item or items for sale at a specific price. It has long been a fundamental accounting practice that whatever liability may be generated by this promise or price guarantee i...

By Ed Zwirn • June 13, 2005

SEC Charges Former Fischer Execs

The Securities and Exchange Commission accused six former executives of Fischer Imaging Corp., a manufacturer of medical diagnostic equipment, of inflating revenue over the course of several years, according to the Rocky Mountain News.The SEC’s complaint alleged that former chief executive office...

By Stephen Taub • June 9, 2005

Billions of Waste Uncovered at DoD

A report by the Government Accountability Office — which will surpise no one who read last year’s cover story “Losing Battles” — found “billions of dollars” of waste annually at the Department of Defense due to business and financial management weaknesses.“DoD’s substantial long-standing manageme...

By Stephen Taub • June 9, 2005

HealthSouth to Pay $100M in Settlement

HealthSouth Corp. has agreed to pay $100 million over two years to settle Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges stemming from its accounting scandal, according to the company.The payment may be applied toward the “fair fund” provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to compensate investors w...

By Stephen Taub • June 9, 2005

CVS Agrees to $110 Million Settlement

Pharmacy chain CVS Corp. has agreed to pay $110 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit related to alleged accounting abuses, according to the Boston Globe.In a statement, the company maintained that it ”continues to deny liability and entered into the settlement agreement solely to avoid the ris...

By Stephen Taub • June 7, 2005

Former Gen Re Exec Settles AIG Charges

John Houldsworth, a former senior executive of General Re, and the Securities and Exchange Commission have agreed to a partial settlement of charges stemming from transactions with American International Group Inc., according to the SEC. Several published accounts, citing Houldsworth’s attorney, ...

By Stephen Taub • June 7, 2005

Not So Fast, FAS 133

For the moment, revisions to Financial Accounting Standard 133 — Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities — are on hold. Last Wednesday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board delayed ruling on the need for a new project that would deal with the creditworthiness of derivativ...

By Ed Zwirn • June 6, 2005

SEC Won’t Pursue General Mills Probe

General Mills Inc. announced late last week that the Securities and Exchange Commission has terminated its investigation of the cereal company’s sales practices and related accounting.The SEC staff — which in February 2004 issued a Wells notice covering General Mills, chief executive officer Stev...

By Stephen Taub • June 6, 2005

Saks Discloses Further Inquiry

Embattled retailer Saks Inc. announced that its audit committee has launched a supplemental internal inquiry into the timing of the recording of inventory markdowns and vendor markdown allowances at Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises.The audit committee will also investigate possible overcollections o...

By Stephen Taub • June 6, 2005

Bristol-Myers Settles Lawsuits for $89M

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. has taken another step toward putting its accounting scandal behind it. The pharmaceutical giant agreed to pay $89 million to settle four lawsuits brought by plaintiffs who chose not to take part in last summer’s $300 million settlement.The lawsuits were related to wholes...

By Stephen Taub • June 3, 2005

Staggered Start for Options Expensing

Most public companies must begin expensing options as of their first fiscal year that begins after June 15. For companies with a calendar year-end, that won’t be until March 31, 2006.Cisco Systems Inc., which has proposed a widely discussed plan to market a derivative that could reduce the impact...

By Stephen Taub • June 1, 2005

Gillette Deal Gets Nicked

Gillette Corp. markets its shaving products as “the best a man can get,” but is its planned sale to consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble the best deal it can get? Regulators in Gillette’s home state of Massachusetts don’t think so.Secretary of State William Galvin has launched an investig...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 1, 2005

AIG Finally Files 10-K, Restates

After missing several self-imposed deadlines, American International Group Inc. filed its 2004 annual report and the restatements of its results from 2000 through 2003 and an adjustment to its 2004 results.The embattled insurance giant, whose accounting practices are being investigated by several...

By Stephen Taub • May 31, 2005

Computer Associates to Restate Results

Apparently embarked on a new era following its accounting scandal, Computer Associates found itself being drawn back into the effects of its dark past with yet another restatement. The company, which already restated $2.2 billion in revenue for 2001 and 2002, reported that it would revise its res...

By Stephen Taub • May 31, 2005

Pollution Costs Return to Balance Sheets

As the restful memories of the long Memorial Day weekend fade, corporate accountants begin a summer that could be spent sorting out the effects of a new Financial Accounting Standards Board interpretation likely to force hundreds of companies to book conditional environmental liabilities.FIN 47, ...

By Marie Leone • May 31, 2005

Spitzer Sues AIG, Greenberg, Smith

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and New York State Insurance Superintendent Howard Mills have filed a civil lawsuit against American International Group Inc., former chairman Maurice Greenberg, and former chief financial officer Howard I. Smith. Spitzer and Mills accuse them of mani...

By Stephen Taub • May 27, 2005