Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Mark Hurd resigned as chief executive officer after an investigation found he had a personal relationship with a contractor who received numerous inappropriate payments from the company. Hurd submitted receipts for expenses ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 over two years, including meals and travel, that should have been labeled as personal and not… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Advanced Accounting
Who are the most trustworthy companies and why?
Who can you trust? In a recent examination by Audit Integrity, an independent financial analytics company in Los Angeles, the company assessed the true quality of corporate accounting and management practices by looking at more than 100 factors beyond the balance sheet and income statement. Their aim was to identify the measures most highly associated… Read more »
The Costs of Liposuction
Lots of people are curious about the price of liposuction (which is also referred to as lipoplasty and suction lipectomy). Although the procedure sports a somewhat hefty price tag, it is among the cheaper cosmetic surgeries available. Some the of the cheapest areas for liposuction are the arms, buttocks, female back, hips and outer thighs…. Read more »
Multi-Million Dollar Swindle of Four Universities
In one of the most recently uncovered Ponzi cases, a former hedge-fund manager has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in an investment scam in which he bilked as much as $900-million from investors, including four university endowments. According to investigators, the Paul R. Greenwood and his partner Stephen Walsh spent at least $160-million on mansions, horses,… Read more »
Accounting Firms and Social Media
If accounting has the Big 4, then social media has the Big 3: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Still, many accounting firms and businesses consider LinkedIn as their sole source of social media because the site helps form relationships that often result in more business and turn into referral sources. But what are the benefits and… Read more »
New Revenue Recognition Standards on the Way for Contractors
Contractors should be educating themselves on the impact of the new proposed revenue recognition standards and the recently published (June 24, 2010) exposure draft pertaining to revenue from contracts with customers. Public comments are due October 22, 2010, and it is expected the standards will be finalized in 2011. Questions: 1. What are some of… Read more »
Mortgage Fairs
Given the last year’s trend, is there an end in sight to new record-low interest rates? For example, on July 22, Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, which provides a snapshot of national average mortgage rates, reported a national average rate of 4.56% with 0.7 points on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. At the same time… Read more »
Bank of America: It Depends On How You Define Materiality
Bank of America incorrectly classified as much as $10.7 billion in short-term lending and repurchase deals for mortgage securities as sales. This claim surfaced in a May 13 letter to the SEC where the banking corporation alleges that the transactions were immaterial and that it would be beefing up its internal accounting controls. This letter… Read more »
Risky Medicine for Hospital Financing
In a last-minute change to the financial reforms bill, Congress allowed Wall Street to continue to sell interest-rate swaps directly, rather than isolating these derivatives in separate units. The thinking behind this move is that the interest-rate securities are benign, or at least less dangerous than credit default swaps, which the legislation requires banks to… Read more »
Scrushy Back in the News
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new review of the convictions in the government corruption case against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and ex-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy. Questions: 1. What is the “honest services” fraud law? 2. What is a “quid pro quo” agreement? 3. A judge issued a $2.9 billion civil judgment… Read more »