Posts Tagged: ethics

Interesting ACLU case

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

The ACLU is filing suit against Morgan Stanley, alleging that the company targeted African American borrowers in risky loan offerings. The ACLU claims that Morgan Stanley is culpable for predatory loan offered through the New Century Financial Corporation, who is a now-defunct subprime lender, because Morgan Stanley pressured New Century to make these troublesome loans… Read more »

Exploding Water Pipe – Fraud Alert

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

Forty-five government entities are now joining whistleblower John Hendrix’s suit against JM Eagle. The suit alledges that the largest PVC pipe manufacturer committed fraud by intentionally selling pipe to governments, where the company’s internal quality controls showed 50 to 80 percent failure rates. Questions: 1. What was Hendrix’s position with the firm and what did… Read more »

An Ugly Tale: Double-Life and Secret Fortune

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

CFO John Franklin Howard, the trusted CFO and CPA for Raley Holdings, Inc., a defense contractor based in Grapevine, Texas, now has more than just $32 million to account for from his embezzlement; he is also facing solicitation of murder charges. Interestingly, he used some of the embezzled money to pay someone to murder his… Read more »

How to Earn $46,000 for Each Day Spent in Prison

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

Bradley Birkenfeld, the whistleblower in a tax fraud case against Swiss bank UBS AG, was awarded a record-setting $104 million reward from the IRS. Birkenfeld learned about the inner workings of UBS as an employee of the company and supplied many secrets about his former employer’s dealings with U.S. clients. Despite this, he was jailed… Read more »

The Unbanked

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

According to a new Federal report, more Americans are limiting or have no interaction with banks. Instead they rely on check cashers and payday lenders to manage their finances. Questions: 1. What are the costs and benefit of avoiding banks? 2. What percentage of U.S. households are “unbanked”? What are the demographics of this group?… Read more »

Do I have to take the course? Will I go to jail?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Financial Accounting, Fraud Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

More than 300 district attorneys’ offices allow debt collectors to use their letterhead to send letters to people across the country who have written bad checks. These letters threaten them with jail if they do not pay up. In return, the companies try to collect not only the unpaid check, but also high fees from… Read more »

The Business Model of Overstating Benefits: How Harmful or Ethical?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Video Updates.

It is estimated that between 50,000 to 100,000 patients died or had a heart attack as a result of taking the drug Advandia. For seven years, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) failed to report data that indicated Advandia increases the risk of heart attack by 40%. As we reported back in July, in the biggest health care fraud… Read more »

Are you Suspicious? Maybe you should be!

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, All Articles, Auditing, Fraud Accounting, Uncategorized.

A few years ago, Todd Rutherford was part of the marketing department at a company that provided services to self-published writers. These services included persuading traditional media and blogs to review the books. Then he realized that there were not enough reviewers to go around. So he started a website, GettingBookReviews.com, which eventually earned him… Read more »

Private Equity Firms and A Tax Strategy Investigation

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

Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, is investigating abusive tax strategies at some of the nation’s largest private equity firms. As part of these efforts, last week, he subpoenaed documents from more than a dozen firms hoping to uncover conversion of certain management fees collected from their investors into fund investments, which are taxed… Read more »

Robo-Signing Redux

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Debt collection practices focusing on erroneous documents, incomplete records and generic testimony from witnesses in lawsuits by credit card companies is mirroring problems similar to those in the mortgage foreclosure process. According to Noach Dear, a civil court judge in Brooklyn, about 90% of the cases he sees are flawed and cannot prove who the… Read more »