New at Forbes: My Comments On The Latest Sanctions Against Ernst & Young
As if Ernst & Young didn’t have enough to worry about now they’ve got a public airing of some dirty laundry by the PCAOB.
Ernst & Young Lehman Litigation: It’s No Victory If You’re Going To Trial
/12 Comments/in Audit Quality, Latest, Liability Caps, Pure Content, The Case Against The AuditorsIt wasn’t even a verdict. Just a decision by New York Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan in one of the Lehman failure cases Ernst & Young is fighting. A decision to allow substantially all of the allegations against Lehman executives and at least one of the allegations against Ernst & Young to move forward to discovery and trial. That is, if there’s not a settlement first.
Going In Circles: A Few Remarks On Audit Reform
/11 Comments/in Audit Quality, Food for Thought, Latest, Liability Caps, Pure ContentDon’t get me wrong.
I’m thrilled that there’s a lot of traffic in my lane. What I mean is, it’s good for everyone that we’re talking about these issues and that someone other than me and a few other broken records are playing these tunes.
Making Mortgage Fraudsters Pay…But Via Private Lawsuits (And Some Attorneys General) Not Law Enforcement
/9 Comments/in Audit Quality, Deloitte, EY, Fraud, KPMG, Latest, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Pure Content, Regulators, Laws, Standards, Regulations, SEC, Subprime, The Case Against The AuditorsThank goodness for the plaintiffs’ bar and class action lawsuits. And state attorneys general. Without them, there’d be very little justice yet – or compensation – for any of the mortgage-related fraud perpetrated during the real estate bubble.
Not Over Until It’s Over: Price Waterhouse India Settles Satyam
/11 Comments/in Audit Firm Management, Audit Quality, Fraud, Latest, Pure Content, The Big 4 And GlobalizationIt’s the potential for sudden conflagrations in developing countries that keeps the global audit firms – PwC in this case – up at night. The legal quagmires in developed countries are messy, too. PwC may want to put the Satyam scandal behind them but, unfortunately, I fear there’s still much more pain for the firm to come.
@Forbes “Auditors Abandon Investors On Liability Limits”
/in Audit Quality, Food for Thought, Fraud, Liability Caps, Pure ContentTammy Whitehouse over at Compliance Week does a thorough job on the largest audit firms and their fear of catastophic litigation. Yes, they’re admitting it – Tammy says they’re pleading with legislators – and fighting any legislative urges to open more avenues for lawyers and their clients to sue them. The Dodd-Frank Act gave the Securities […]
@Forbes: Forget Everyone Else – Why Aren’t Auditors Answering For Financial Crisis?
/4 Comments/in Audit Quality, Pure Content, Writing for OthersSome may say that tweaking New York Times reporters to make a point about auditor liability, especially one so prominent such as Andrew Ross Sorkin, may not be a great career move. But then you’re assuming my idea of a “career” is yours. I call them as I see them, and the two blog posts in […]
The Perils Of Pre-Inspection File Polishing
/2 Comments/in Audit Quality, EY, Your CareerEver wondered what it would be like to see your name in print? Most auditors do not aspire to seeing their name in the papers. It’s a career-limiting move to be cited in a bankruptcy examiner’s report or a disciplinary order issued by the PCAOB.
Auditing Standard 5: How Now, Brown Cow?
/8 Comments/in Audit Quality, Latest, Liability Caps, Pure Content, The Case Against The AuditorsOn September 24, 2009 the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued a report on the first year of implementation of Auditing Standard No. 5. There’s something negative to say about each of the components reviewed.
@Going Concern “Can I Have Your Autograph?”
/11 Comments/in Audit Quality, PCAOB, Writing for OthersMy new post is up @Going Concern. “The PCAOB approved Auditing Standard No. 7, Engagement Quality Review on July 28, 2009. They also issued a Concept Release on requiring the engagement partner to sign the audit report. The comment period closed September 11th and boy oh boy were there a lot of comments. The firms […]
FEI Lists The Top Challenges for 2009 – An Interview With James Abel
/4 Comments/in Audit Quality, Fair Value, Subprime, Where I've BeenFinancial Executives International has just released the results of their survey, “2009 Top Challenges for Financial Executives,” and it’s quite interesting to see what a difference a year makes.
PCAOB – Seeing The Big 4 Through Rose Colored Glasses
/18 Comments/in Audit Quality, Fair Value, Independence, PCAOB, SECUnfortunately, I was unable to attend the AICPA National Conference on PCAOB and SEC Developments in person. As much as I would have loved to be there live, to ask questions and, perhaps, walk all over the wafflers with my Manolos, it’s not always possible. In this case it may have been just as well. […]