Mark Jackson, president of EchoStar Corp. (NASDAQ:SATS), doesn’t have an engineering degree from Texas Tech, as had been claimed in numerous filings and public relations pieces. The fake degree was also listed in an annual report for ArchosSA, a French […]
Last week, Sam Antar exposed yet another set of accounting manipulations by Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) and CEO Patrick Byrne. Those who have carefully followed the Overstock saga are no doubt unsurprised at company’s use of a little accounting “presto chango” to […]
It’s no secret that I feel that audits are almost completely ineffective when it comes to verifying the validity of financial statements. Sure, an audit checks the math and some of the obvious applications of the accounting rules. But audits […]
It can’t be! It’s being alleged that Securities and Exchange Commission employees cared more about their careers than actually doing their jobs. One might think that a strong enforcement record might be career enhancing, but what do I know. It’s […]
Consumers are often left wondering why the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t heavily pursue allegations of fraud against public companies like Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), Usana Health Sciences (NASDAQ:USNA), Herbalife (NYSE:HLF), and the like. I’ve always said the answer is simple: There […]
A few months ago, a committee advising Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on the “state of auditing” recommended that Big 4 audit firms be required to submit audited financial statements to the Public Company Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). It’s suggested […]
From the Wall Street Journal: The University of California, Irvine, says a Broadcom Corp. [NASDAQ:BRCM] executive didn’t earn two academic degrees listed in his corporate biography.
The current issue of New York Magazine has a lengthy story about the collapse of Lehman Brothers. To cut to the chase: Management knew in June that the company was in serious, serious trouble. Which leads me to ask when […]
Francine McKenna at re: The Auditors has an interesting post and set of comments about internal audit functions at public companies and the importance of internal auditors. External auditors look at a company’s financial statements and a small amount of […]
It should come as no shock to anyone that lots of fingers are being pointed related to Wall Street’s meltdown, and specifically related to the banking industry. And auditors are likely to find themselves the targets of lawsuits. Auditor malpractice […]
