• When Your Compliance Program Fails

    The steps to take when an employee compes forward with a fraud tip, whether the allegations are false or not. Tracy L. Coenen – CFO Magazine You think your company has a robust compliance program to prevent financial-statement fraud, asset […]

  • Groupon: Restated Numbers Reveal Failure of Business

    In July, critics attacked Groupon (GRPN) and it use of a made-up accounting measure management called Adjusted CSOI. I suggested that the company made up the measure to exclude many of the company’s expenses to make the company look more […]

  • CFO Magazine: Creating a Culture of Compliance

    I was recently quoted in CFO Magazine for an article on creating an ethical culture within companies. Below are a few excerpts, including my comments. In December, the federal government cited a “lax corporate control environment” at Alcatel, which extended […]

  • TSA Agent Thedala Magee Rapes Passenger, Then Demands Money

    As the United States goes back to normal, following our remembrance of September 11, 2001, one of the most offensive bits of “normal” continues at airports. We, the citizens of the United States, allow the Transportation Security Administration to shame, […]

  • Forensic Accountant Builds Successful Practice by Billing For Value, Not Time

    The path from Marquette undergraduate to forensic accounting expert was an unexpected one for Tracy Coenen. But she hadn’t counted on a chance semester of Financial Criminal Investigations and the impression left by her professor, a former IRS special agent. […]

  • Former Koss Employee in Talks to Settle SEC Case

    Doris Hajewski – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel A year and a half after the embezzlement of $34 million from Koss Corp. was discovered, former accounting employee Julie Mulvaney is negotiating with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle the regulatory agency’s […]

  • Food Stamps Create Jobs, and Other Government Delusions

    It’s hard to believe that our elected officials and the people they appoint to important jobs can be this stupid. But it’s true. They are. Recently, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated in a interview on MSNBC that food stamps and […]

  • SEC Discards Documents Regarding Matters Under Investigation (MUIs) According to Agency Policy

    The big buzz this week is an article in Rolling Stone regarding the SEC’s policy of destroying documents related to Matters Under Investigation (MUIs) which do not result in any agency action being taken. At first blush, it may appear […]

  • Committed to Fraud Prevention

    As regulators focus on corruption crackdowns, companies are turning to compliance committees to help them stay on the right track. Tracy L. Coenen – CFO Magazine Do a Web search for corporate compliance committees, and you’ll get hundreds of thousands […]

  • Are Public School Teachers Underpaid?

    I have addressed the issue of teacher compensation multiple times in the context of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and the constant budget problems the district claims to have. The administrators claim that they need more money, yet time and again […]