Attorney-Client Privilege – Francine McKenna

US Department of Justice v KPMG: Document Shows “Too Few To Fail” Was Opening Premise

April 19, 2014/2 Comments/in Attorney-Client Privilege, PCAOB, Pure Content, Regulators, Laws, Standards, Regulations, Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC, The Case Against The Auditors

A new KPMG tax shelter era document surfaced, in original format, that had not yet been cited or quoted from in any media reports. The document tells us that late in the negotiations, June 27, 2005 the DOJ still would not agree to all of KPMG’s terms, including promising not to criminally charge the firm. But the decision to make sure the firm did not “go under” had already been made. KPMG and its Skadden attorneys only had to make sure the DOJ didn’t, in a misguided show of sheer aggressiveness, cause another Arthur Andersen.

Are Auditors Reporting Fraud And Illegal Acts? The SEC Knows But Isn’t Telling

February 22, 2012/8 Comments/in Attorney-Client Privilege, Independence, Latest, PCAOB, Pure Content, Regulators, Laws, Standards, Regulations, Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC, The Case Against The Auditors

There are still many unanswered questions about how and why the financial crisis frauds occurred. New frauds, such as the Chinese reverse merger frauds, took advantage of a public listing loophole that the SEC and auditors missed. All these investor losses occurred under the supposedly watchful eyes of auditors, who are paid dearly to protect shareholders but in many cases are either complicit, incompetent, or both.

Update: Mortgage Servicer Foreclosure Review Process

December 27, 2011/4 Comments/in Attorney-Client Privilege, Bear Stearns, Deloitte, EY, Fraud, Independence, Latest, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Pure Content, Regulators, Laws, Standards, Regulations, Subprime, The Big 4 And Consulting

I was the first to report on December 6 the irony of Deloitte having been selected by, of all banks, JP Morgan Chase. The high likelihood of a conflict between the bank and the audit firm, and possibly the individual Deloitte partners assigned to the JP Morgan Chase review, should have been obvious to anyone at the OCC. It turns out I was right.

What The Auditors Saw – An Update on Société Générale

October 14, 2008/1 Comment/in Attorney-Client Privilege, Audit Quality, Deloitte, EY, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Societe Generale

Prentice: It’s a fascinating theory, sir, and cleverly put together. Does it tie in with known facts?Rance: That need not cause us undue anxiety. Civilizations have been founded and maintained on theories which refused to obey fact.“What The Butler Saw”Joe Orton, 1969 Kerviel’s lawyers question Société Générale accountants PARIS: Jérôme Kerviel, blamed by Société Générale […]

Update (2) – More FAS 5 – More Transparency or More Shilling

August 11, 2008/4 Comments/in Attorney-Client Privilege, Internal Audit

And the US Chamber of Commerce also pipes in. As expected, they are on the side of their corporate management constituency. Although I agree with their position about erosion of attorney client privilege, I do not agree with their position regarding this privilege when it comes to information requested by auditors. Auditors (internal and external) […]

Auditors and Privilege – Ask Me No Questions, I’ll Tell You No Lies

November 26, 2007/6 Comments/in Attorney-Client Privilege, EY, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Photo Source Back in the summer of 2005, I joined the team that audits PwC the Firm, itself. I was thrilled. Although I was giving up being on my own and spending most of my time on Mexico and South America, I was joining what I thought at the time was a world-class firm, I […]

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