• A Little “Deep Capture” Cover-Up in the Works?

    Gary Weiss has a most excellent post on his blog about an apparent cover-up in progress by Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK). Here’s the deal: For a couple of years now, Patrick has been ranting and raving about conspiracies […]

  • Lie About Your Credentials, Win CFO of the Year

    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 […]

  • State Audit Finds Overtime Problems

    No, I’m not surprised. The Journal Sentinel tipped us off about the horrendous overtime situation with state employees several weeks ago. Now an internal audit confirms abuse of the overtime system, along with pure mismanagement of our tax dollars. No […]

  • Does This Sound Legitimate to You?

    Today I got an email from a marketing firm that specializes in helping CPA firms market their services. The sender of the email was inquiring about whether I charge hourly or fixed fees, and what my hourly rates are. He […]

  • Preserving Some Overstock.com History Again

    From time-to-time, I like to cut and paste from the ever-entertaining stock message boards about Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK). I admit to being a casual observer. I don’t post on those message boards, but do read on occasion. And this exchange was […]

  • Suspect in Title Company Fraud to be Charged with Felonies

    In March I wrote about a case involving Parkview Title Service and a mom and daughter team that allegedly stole huge sums of money from it. In mid-2006, Bill Molkenthen (the owner of Parkview) believed that Bobbi Moths and her […]

  • Thousands of Victims of Naked Short Selling, But I’m Not Naming Names!

    I’m not an expert on Naked Short Selling. Frankly, I’ve just never really been interested in the topic. Does it appear to exist? Yes. Does it appear to be the reason Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) is doing so poorly and its stock […]

  • You Thought the MMAC Was Supposed to Help Businesses? Wrong!

    I used to be a member of the MMAC (Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce). It’s our chamber of commerce, just with a funny name. I quit paying the toll a few years ago because the organization is worthless. By virtue […]

  • Tomatoes and Cheap Labor: A Commentary on Immigration Reform

    CHEAP TOMATOES?  This should make everyone think, be you Democrat, Republican or Independent  The following is from a Southern California, LA area school teacher… As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some […]

  • Fixed Fees: I’m Not a Fast Food Joint

    Recently I’ve had a bunch of conversations about fixed fees (also called flat fees) in the context of providing professional services: lawyers, auditors, accountants, fraud investigators… And I get a lot of pushback on the idea. Professional service providers have […]