• Groupon’s Latest Accounting Problem

    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 […]

  • Auditor Rotation Won’t Make Audits Better

    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, […]

  • MATC Fraud Went Undetected Until First Audit in a Decade

    Karen Herzog, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel When a former Milwaukee Area Technical College employee used her MATC credit card to pay for a car, a wedding trip, computers, home furnishings and other personal items totaling $259,000, the purchases went undetected until […]

  • Fraudulent Accounting Practices: Easy to Commit, Hard to Find

    We hear almost daily reports of companies engaging in accounting shenanigans to boost their apparent performance. As of late, companies like Diamond Foods (DMND), Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) and Avon Products Inc. (AVP) are grabbing headlines for their alleged […]

  • Groupon: Problems With Customer Loyalty and Marketing Costs

    Prior to Groupon’s IPO last year, I wrote a few articles that were critical of the company. In one of my articles, I noted problems with loyalty of customers and merchants: It’s expensive to get new customers. Sure, a large […]

  • When Employees Steal, the SEC May Punish the Company and the CEO

    Guest Post by Keith Paul Bishop Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Keith Bishop’s blog, California Corporate & Securities Law on November 23, 2011. It offers us a different view from that of Tracy Coenen regarding the SEC’s […]

  • J2 Global Communications Trying to Hide Accounting Errors

    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 […]

  • Compliance Week: Koss Embezzlement and Small Company Internal Controls

    Today’s Compliance Week article, “SEC Pursues Small Company Over Lax Internal Controls,” [subscription required] discusses the SEC settlement with Koss Corp over the $34 million embezzlement by former Vice President of Finance Sujata (Sue) Sachdeva. The article explains the settlement, […]

  • SEC Pursues Small Company Over Lax Internal Controls

    Compliance Week By Tammy Whitehouse The Securities and Exchange Commission is sending another warning about fraud prevention by pursuing top executives at a small company for failing to stop a massive fraud, although legal experts are divided on whether it […]

  • Financial Statement Fraud: Olympus Makes It Look Easy

    What is a company to do when it wants to hide losses? Manipulation of the financial statements is the obvious first choice. It’s not hard. Sure companies have “internal controls,” which are supposed to include policies and procedures which ensure […]