N.M. Bank Settles Fraud Charges for $1.5M

Trinity Capital has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle charges that its Los Alamos National Bank subsidiary understated loan losses by nearly $36 million to hide the bank’s “dire” financial condition from investors and regulators.Five current or former Los Alamos executives including former CFO...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 29, 2015

Microsoft Changes Financial Reporting Segments

Microsoft on Monday said that it would begin reporting revenue and operating income based on three operating segments, “productivity and business processes,” “intelligent cloud,” and “more personal computing,” to emphasize its mobile and cloud businesses.The productivity and business processes se...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Sept. 29, 2015

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

Hitachi Fined $19M Over South Africa Payments

Hitachi Ltd. has agreed to pay $19 million to settle U.S. charges that the Japanese conglomerate inaccurately recorded improper payments to South Africa’s ruling party in connection with contracts worth $5.6 billion to build two power plants.The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 29, 2015

SEC Charges CPA, 4 Others With Insider Trading

Five Florida residents — including two lawyers and an accountant — have agreed to pay a total of about $489,000 to settle charges that they traded in Pharmasset shares based on inside information about a takeover bid.According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, attorneys Robert L. Sp...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 28, 2015

FASB Wants Clarity on ‘Materiality’ Definition

In an effort to allay confusion among corporate finance and accounting executives and others about what constitutes “material” disclosures in financial statement footnotes, the Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed last week to drop its own definition of the concept of materiality.Russell...

By David Katz • Sept. 28, 2015

CFO, 3 Others Charged With Mobile-Fuel Fraud

The former CFO of a defunct mobile-fueling company and three other former officers were charged Friday with inflating SMF Energy’s revenues by billing customers including United Parcel Service for fuel that was not delivered.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint fi...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 25, 2015

Hefty CEO Severance Is Good, Despite Investors’ Ire: Study

As corporate boards at Mattel, Hertz, Symantec, and other companies have recently learned, few things rankle investors more than CEOs exiting the corner office with hefty payouts after presiding over poor firm performance.Agreements to make generous payments to chief executives upon their termina...

By David McCann • Sept. 24, 2015

Ad Blocking: M’m! M’m! Good!

I don’t know about you, but I am just about totally fed up with advertising. On every medium I use regularly (TV, the web, and increasingly on my phone) ads are getting in the way of doing work or consuming content for any purpose. It’s time wasting, frustrating, and on some platforms it’s costin...

By John Parkinson • Sept. 24, 2015

Stein Mart Faulted for Inventory Accounting

Stein Mart has agreed to pay $800,000 to settle charges that it misstated its pre-tax income as a result of improperly valuing inventory that was subject to price discounts.According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Florida-based retailer often offered merchandise to customers ...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 23, 2015

Struggling to Fill Jobs (Video)

The latest Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook survey shows the outllook of U.S. finance executives for their economy continued to weaken this quarter, slipping to 60 following the previous quarter’s 63 rating (on a scale from 0 to 100) and the year’s high point of 65 in the spring. Confi...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 23, 2015

CFO’s Accounting and Finance for Executives

A misleading YaFarm Technologies press release on stem-cell research lands two in hot water and Groupon to cut 1,100 jobs. Find these stories and more in the world of finance in CFO’s roundup… U.N. Highlights Continuing Digital DivideA new report finds the Internet is still only available to 35% ...

By Kerry Maruna • Sept. 23, 2015

CFOs to Watch

When the editors of CFO began the process of selecting 20 finance chiefs to watch in the year ahead, the initial sentiment was: why so few? After all, hardly a week goes by when a CFO isn’t making news because of a financial or operational or strategic initiative. Our email boxes overflow with mi...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 22, 2015

Deals Demand Prior CFO Involvement in Data Security

The role of a chief financial officer continues to grow and shift, and it’s become obvious in this age of expanding technology and big data that a crucial component of a company’s financial health depends on its data privacy and data security programs, regardless of the nature of the business.Jes...

By Jessica Franken and Heather Buchta • Sept. 21, 2015

Audit Firms to Pay $318K Over Microcap Fraud

Two audit firms — De Joya Griffith and M&K CPAS — and seven auditors have agreed to pay $318,000 to settle charges they were deficient in auditing the financial statements of purported mining companies that were part of a microcap fraud scheme.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said ...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 21, 2015

CFO’s Accounting and Finance for Executives

Good morning and good Monday to everyone in the realm of finance and accounting. Perhaps you need to get caught up on what’s going on? For example, how come 30% of employees are getting bonuses when bonuses are underfunded for the 5th straight year? Why is fraud costing retailers big chunks of sa...

By Kerry Maruna • Sept. 21, 2015

Windstream Acts to Protect $1.2B Tax Asset

Windstream Holdings has adopted a shareholder rights plan to protect valuable tax assets that would be at risk if a shareholder took a large stake in the provider of cloud computing, broadband, and voice services.Net operating loss carryforwards can be used in certain circumstances to offset futu...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 21, 2015

Fitch Warns of Anheuser-Busch Debt Downgrade

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s bonds would likely be downgraded below investment grade if the Brussels-based brewer bought SABMiller using only debt, according to Fitch Ratings.ABI on Wednesday confirmed it had approached London-based SABMiller’s board about a combination of the two companies, but that n...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Sept. 18, 2015

Florida CPA Accused of Faulty Audits of 8 Firms

A Florida-based CPA’s audits of eight publicly-traded companies were so deficient they amounted to “no audits at all,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged.The regulator on Thursday charged Terry L. Johnson, 56, with securities fraud, alleging numerous audit deficiencies includ...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 18, 2015

Firms Facing Tough Anti-Corruption Hurdles

It’s getting tougher for corporates to monitor third-party bribery and corruption as compliance becomes more complex and operations are increasingly globalized, according to a report from KPMG.The survey of more than 650 corporate risk leaders found that  more than three-quarters (77%) of U.S. fi...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Sept. 18, 2015

Fed Says Economy Still Not Ready for Rate Hike

The U.S. Federal Reserve decided on Thursday to further delay an interest-rate hike, indicating it still does not believe the economy has recovered enough from the Great Recession to begin “normalizing financial policy.”The financial markets had been abuzz at the possibility that the Fed would an...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 17, 2015

Group Calls For SEC Chair’s Recusal On PCAOB Decision

The Center for Effective Government is calling for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White to recuse herself from choosing the next head the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, because White’s husband sits on the board’s advisory group.While the position is unpaid, it g...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Sept. 17, 2015

Dole Buyout Case Attracts Scrutiny of Financial Projections

Plaintiffs’ lawyers will apply greater scrutiny to financial projections and earnings guidance prepared during buyout talks as a result of a recent court case involving Dole Foods’ freeze-out merger. In light of the decision, CFOs must anticipate that their projections and guidance will be twiste...

By Gardner Davis • Sept. 17, 2015

EU Widens Corporate Tax Investigation

Now that all countries within the European Union are cooperating, regulators are widening their investigation into alleged sweetheart tax deals with companies, a Wall Street Journal article said Thursday.EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told European lawmakers at a hearing on Thursday that all ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Sept. 17, 2015

IRS Taking Tougher Stance on Some Spinoffs

The Internal Revenue Service will no longer rubber stamp corporate spinoffs of real estate and other physical assets, citing “significant concerns” that companies may be disguising dividends and other taxable transactions as spinoffs to avoid paying taxes.These spinoffs “involve significant conce...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Sept. 16, 2015

Beating the Workflow Blame Game

Dear Kevin,I try to hire the best employees. Once they’re on board, I work hard to motivate them, applying what I learned in my management training. My employees don’t seem lazy, and they’re definitely smart enough to do the job, but for some reason things aren’t working. People keep making mista...

By Kevin Herring • Sept. 15, 2015