• Lawyer Convicted of Tax Evasion and Bankruptcy Fraud Wants to Teach a Morality Class Instead of Going to Prison

    No, it’s not a joke. Stephen Yagman, a high-profile lawyer who was involved in numerous cases against police thinks that he shouldn’t go to prison for his convictions on tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud. He says that would be too […]

  • Forcing Auditors to Tell the Secrets of Their Clients?

    As a general rule, communications between an auditor and client are private. The information given to an auditor can generally only be disclosed with the permission of the client, or in situations involving SEC filings. But the protection of communications […]

  • What’s your fraud score?

    A research report published by the Final Four accounting firms details how to create a “fraud score” for public companies which can help predict which companies may be engaging in accounting manipulations. Using the model outlined in “Predicting Material Accounting […]

  • Former CEO found liable

    Earlier this month, a jury found Brian Adley, former chairman, CEO, and controlling shareholder of defunct Chancellor Corporation liable for creating false accounting documents. Chancellor was a transportation equipment leasing company in Boston. The jury found that from 1998 through […]

  • Should You Blog?

    I am often asked by other professionals if they should start a blog, and the answer is almost always, “it depends.” And it really does. I think the most important variable is whether or not the person is committed to […]

  • Putting auditor billing rates into perspective

    I am still settling in from my office move and upacking some odds and ends. Today I came across a billing rate card from Arthur Andersen. The rates are from 9/1/96 to 8/31/97 for the Milwaukee office, and they are […]

  • SEC fines have gone down

    The fines levied by the Securities and Exchange commission have fallen to their lowest level since 2002. Bloomberg reports that “fewer billion-dollar accounting-fraud cases” and “new policies for fining companies” are to blame. For the year ended September 30, the […]

  • Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Endorses Company Committing Fraud

    Did I ever mention that the Attorney General of Utah, Mark Shurtleff publicly endorsed Usana Health Sciences (NASDAQ:USNA) and said the company operates in a legal fashion? Oh yeah, that’s right… I did. Well then, let’s review. Usana executives have […]

  • Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff: No Apology for Sam Antar!

    Yesterday I wrote a letter to Mark Shurtleff, Utah’s Attorney General, urging him to issue a public apology to Sam Antar. Last week, Mr. Shurtleff wrote a letter to Overstock.com (which Overstock and Patrick Byrne later attached to a press […]

  • Herbalife’s Top 5 Misrepresentations

    Herbalife’s (NYSE:HLF) CEO Michael Johnson and CFO Richard Goudis contradict one another’s figures. Fraud Discovery Institute (FDI) issues the following statement about its review of Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) presentations by CEO Michael Johnson and CFO Richard Goudis. First, on November 7, […]