On September 11 Bill Ackman went beyond his ongoing accusation that Herbalife is pyramid scheme and sent a 52-page letter to PwC warning the firm it is exposed to enormous liability if it signs off on Herbalife audit opinions and Qs without a full investigation of several accounting, tax and bribery allegations. Ackman used my work to bolster his case to PwC.
For two days this week the audit regulator, the PCAOB, solicited feedback from investors, audit committee members, professional groups like the IIA, former regulators, academics and business leaders on improving auditor independence, professional skepticism, and audit quality.
Deloitte should be careful what they wish for. The Flanagan insider trading litigation has forced them to reveal their woefully inadequate policies and procedures regarding independence compliance. While trying to placate their clients who were dragged through the mud on this and exact revenge against their own leadership-level partner, a pillar of the Chicago social and philanthropic community, they’ve admitted to allowing Flanagan to breach their standards more than 300 times and to get away with it.
Make no mistake.
Gary Holdren was in it for the money.
Huron Consulting Group went public in the summer of 2004, barely two years after bailing on the sinking Arthur Andersen ship in May of 2002.
The accusations are devastating for a firm that makes its money keeping others out of this kind of trouble.
You have to wonder whose sweetheart Tieu Yen Trinh is? (She is a Manager.) The audit firms are getting as wily as the financial services companies in setting up offshore joint ventures to obscure who really is in charge, who really gets the profits, who really pays the taxes, who the clients really are. Oh, […]
