Utah Business magazine should be ashamed of itself. Its first ever “CFO of the Year” award went to Gil Fuller, the CFO of Usana Health Sciences (NASDAQ:USNA) who lied about being a CPA. The lies were repeated over and over in SEC filings until Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute revealed that in fact, Fuller was not a licensed CPA as he had represented.
Details about the award were reported in a Usana press release:
Utah Business stated that CFO honorees work as a partner with a company’s chief executive officer to guide the company through financial storms and sunny days. The publication sought to recognize individuals who have truly risen to the task as financial stewards. Utah Business recognized 24 finalists at the banquet and awarded a top executive from each of eight categories with a CFO of the Year award.
Apparently the criteria used during judging did not include ethics, integrity, or honesty.
Tracy, who publishes Utah Business? Who takes out the biggest ads in the mag?
He beat Overstock.com’s David Chidester for the award?
Ethics, integrity, or honesty. None of these qualities are represented in anyone working for Usana let alone the Utah Attorney General. Does this award really surprise you?
Tracy,
I’m a CPA and I had to research what you were talking about. In my opinion, you’re really being very harsh to a guy that, according to their proxy, is 68 years old and a retired CPA in good standing. Why are you eating your own?
I’ve found that many of the old school CPAs that remain members of the AICPA, still claim to be CPAs regardless of not fulfilling their state requirements and letting their official state licensed CPA lapse. It looks like, after looking into this a bit, that this guy is in good standing and could do the state requirements for those that let their CPA lapse, and be a CPA in a very short time; and you and I both know that the state requirements are nothing more than paying for a conference, or paying somebody online so that you can get your CPE.
You’re really being nasty about this. Seems above and beyond what somebody would do to a fellow AICPA member, and ex-CPA in good standing. You seem to be arguing form over function, which I would fully support if he were out working as a public accounting, instead of CFO.
Whatever floats your boat though,
Josh Harpshire, CFA, CPA, CISA, CIA
Josh – He wasn’t an AICPA member because he wasn’t a CPA. He wasn’t even a “retired CPA in good standing.” He let his licensing lapse. He didn’t qualify to call himself a CPA, so he shouldn’t have called himself that. Why do we even have rules if we’re going to let anyone call themselves a CPA?
And this issue is actually a part of a much bigger issue: the lying and cheating of Usana. The CPA issue is a symptom of a much bigger issue, which is common in fraud cases. Lying is not compartmentalized, and Gil’s lying about this was just part of a larger fraud.
Sorry, I will NEVER claim that Gil Fuller is “one of my own.” What an embarrassment to CPAs everywhere.
Hello,
This article is a few months old and unrelated to Tracy’s posting on Fuller, but I found it appropriate to share it here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7175730.stm
Best R.
Pedro