Is Herbalife a Ponzi Scheme?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

Herbalife is a company that sells weight loss shakes, vitamins and other similar products worth billions of dollars. The company has been around for more than 30 years. It is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. So what could be more legitimate? Bill Ackman, who manages a hedge fund thinks the whole thing is… Read more »

Lose-Lose and Win-Win: Time for Change

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, All Articles, Cost Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Managerial Accounting.

Most airline tickets are nonrefundable and require a hefty change fee plus any fare differential. And many hotel rooms are totally nonrefundable and nonchangeable, so you could lose the entire value of your room. So why isn’t it the same policy when the airlines or hotel changes your arranged plans? As this article points out,… Read more »

Will McDonald’s Appeal the Decision All the Way to the Supreme Court?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Cost Accounting, Financial Statement Analysis, Managerial Accounting.

In an era when companies increasingly use subcontractors and temp agencies to free themselves of employment decisions and headaches, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board ruled on July 29th that McDonald’s could be held jointly liable for labor and wage violations by its franchise operators. Questions: 1. What percentage of the 181… Read more »

A Complex Financial Crime Story

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

Stephen Flatow, a grieving father, charged that Iran financed the Gaza bus bombing that killed his 20-year-old daughter in 1995. Buried in court filings, the suit alleged that money from a charity “fronted” financial transfers to terrorists from the Iranian government. In fact, the charity, known as the Alavi Foundation, actually operated and owned a… Read more »

Maybe This Will Catch On?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, All Articles, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Complaining of low profit margins that generally accompany inexpensive menu items, most fast-food restaurants try to keep wages down. However, some fast food chains are seeing the benefit in paying employees above minimum wage and even above the median hourly wage for fast-food workers nationwide of $8.83, because it allows their workers to opportunities to… Read more »

The Dirty Little Secret of “Cramming!”

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On July 1, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused wireless carrier T-Mobile of adding bogus charges to customers’ accounts without their consent, in U.S. District Court. Questions: 1. How long did T-Mobile use the practice of “cramming” on customer mobile phone bills and what is the estimated amount of the total fraudulent charges? 2…. Read more »

The worth of an employee?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

CEOs talk about what valuable assets employees are, but these assets do not show up on the company’s balance sheet. Why? Because the company does not and cannot own its employees, even though it may seem so at times. However, employers can put a value on your life through company-owned life insurance (COLI). Questions: 1…. Read more »

Barclay’s Dark Pool

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Despite Barclay’s private and public assurances to investors in its pool that they were continually shielded from high-speed trading, the bank is being sued for actively attracting high-speed traders to its venue, as well as bolstering high-speed trader strategies with privileged information about the pool. Questions: 1. Summarize why the article essentially called this a… Read more »

The Untouchable Alaska Bypass

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

Under a federal program exclusive to Alaska, the Postal Service is responsible for shipping more than 100 million pounds a year of apples, frozen meat, dog food, diapers and countless other consumer items to off-road villages in the sparsely populated outposts known as the bush. Over three decades acting as freight forwarder, the agency has… Read more »

How much do you have to make to get a checking account?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Zikomo Fields makes more than $100,000 a year in his job as a software engineer in Kansas City. However, he cannot get a bank account because of a little-known database that tracks financial transgressions, known as ChexSystems. Financial institutions who subscribe to this service view it as fraud prevention. However, New York Attorney General Eric… Read more »