• Former office manager of dental clinic pleads guilty to felony theft charges

    Mary Ellen Wilson, age 56, pleaded guilty today to five counts of [tag]felony[/tag] theft from her employer, Gentle Family Dentistry. She was charged with stealing $293,000, but the actual losses could be more than double that figure. Under a [tag]plea […]

  • Fannie Mae settles for $400 million

    A report issued today from the [tag]Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight[/tag], or [tag]Ofheo[/tag], said that [tag]Fannie Mae[/tag]’s [/tag]quarterly earnings[/tag] were manipulated and the company engaged in [tag]improper accounting[/tag]. The report further stated that management was allowed to disregard [tag]accounting […]

  • SEC rejects SOX exemption for small companies

    For months, the [tag]SEC[/tag] has been considering whether to exempt small companies from [tag]Section 404[/tag] of [tag]Sarbanes-Oxley[/tag]. Compliance with [tag]SOX[/tag] is expensive, and it was argued that smaller companies were overburdened. Instead of exempting the small companies, the SEC has […]

  • Zale Corp CFO placed on leave

    The CFO of Zale Corp., Mark Lenz has been placed on administrative leave indefinitely. His offense: not disclosing delayed [tag]vendor payments[/tag] done to improve 2005 cash flow. Vendor payments scheduled for the last two weeks of the company’s fiscal year […]

  • Conspiracy of Fools: Materiality and Financial Statements

    Enron had banking and finance relationships with some of the largest international firms: Credit Suisse First Boston, Merrill Lynch, and Greenwich NatWest to name a few. All of the firms were interested in continuing their business relationships with Enron, as […]

  • Third Party Confirmations Eyed

    Compliance Week By Tammy Whitehouse In light of regulatory action against fraudulent third-party audit confirmations, some law firms are advising their clients to proceed more carefully when asked to provide such confirmations. “We’re cautioning our clients regarding providing third-party confirmations, […]

  • SEC charges 3 former KPMG partners for altering audit working papers

    The [tag]SEC[/tag] press release: The [tag]Securities and Exchange Commission[/tag] today announced settled administrative actions finding improper professional conduct by a former [tag]KPMG[/tag] engagement partner and senior manager for failing properly to complete the audit of [tag]Tenet Healthcare Corporation[/tag]’s fiscal year […]

  • Internet phishing at tax time

    Identity theft by people posing as the Internal Revenue Service is on the rise. Hundreds of thousands of emails purporting to be from the IRS have been sent to targets, asking readers to go to a site that mimics the […]

  • IRS audit of Greenpeace confirms non-profit status

    In 2003, Public Interest Watch (a group that calls itself a watchdog of non-profit groups) wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service accusing Greenpeace of money laundering and other crimes. The letter accused Greenpeace of laundering $24 million in […]

  • Texas and Oklahoma wildfires and financial statement fraud

    The Oklahoma CPA Society recently asked me to pen a piece about the potential for financial statement fraud related to the recent wildfires. They printed it in their newsletter, OSCPA Wire. Any natural disaster creates opportunities for fraud and that’s […]