There’s a good chance fraud may be occurring under your nose. How to get better at preventing it from happening on your watch. Tracy L. Coenen – CFO Magazine Internal fraud is a huge risk to companies. Experts estimate that on average it costs companies 3% to 5% of revenue …
Two weeks ago, I wrote a short piece on the possibility of PCAOB requiring public companies to rotate auditors on a regular basis. Today’s article delves more deeply into the topic, and more clearly lays out the reasons why it won’t work…. and this time I even included independent statistics. …
On Friday, the market eagerly awaited the release of Groupon’s (GRPN)10-K, detailing results for the year ended December 31, 2011. Shares were up 3.84% during regular trading hours, but dropped as much as 8% (eventually settling at -5.93%) in after hours trading when the company announced its figures were not …
Companies and organizations that are hit with employee fraud, including embezzlement, asset misappropriation, and financial statement manipulation are often surprised that the incident occurred. Even more surprising to executives and boards of directors is the fact that their auditors didn’t find the fraud sooner, or didn’t find it at all. …
Last week, CFO Magazine published an article online about CFOs opposing the potential proposal by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) requiring companies to switch auditors every 5 to 10 years. More than 625 comment letters, many from CFOs, controllers, chief accounting officers, and audit committee chairs, have been …
Today the Journal Sentinel ran a story about the fraud perpetrated on Milwaukee Area Technical College (and taxpayers) by Kristin Semits, the procurement director. Seimits is accused of stealing more than $259,000j over a 7 year period using her P-card (purchasing card – like a company credit card). The report …
When a major fraud is discovered in a company, one of the key targets of litigation is usually the independent auditors. Two well-publicized cases in which management or shareholders suing the auditors after fraud was uncovered involve Koss Corp. (auditors Grant Thornton) and Navistar International Corp. (Deloitte & Touche). Plaintiffs …
Last week, Reuters printed an interesting and enlightening interview with Steven Thomas, the managing partner of Thomas, Alexander & Forrester … an attorney known for suing large auditing firms for malpractice… and winning! Recent big wins include $520 million and $130 million judgments against BDP Seidman, on behalf of Espirito …
Written by Tracy Coenen, CPA, CFF AICPA Corporate Finance Insider Newsletter Reasonable accountants can disagree about whether a move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) will improve financial reporting. One key concern is that principles-based financial statements are much more susceptible to fraud. Rather than relying on strict rules, management’s …
J2 Global Communications (NasdaqGS: JCOM ), better known as eFax, is under fire. Yesterday, Sam Antar tore into the company for an accounting gimmick that the company (and its auditors) had to know was wrong. The issue involves revenue and deferred revenue. In the 10-Q for the first quarter of …
