An SEC Fine for KPMG in the PCAOB Data Theft Scandal and Another Horrible Revelation
“Innovation demands risk-taking… which, in turn, entails redefining failure, stripping away its power to inhibit.” Chairman and CEO of KPMG Lynne Doughtie
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MarketWatch 2018 Stories That Packed A Punch
/in Food for ThoughtA wrap-up of my writing in 2018 on three topics I’d been following that reached a climax last year — Theranos, FDIC v. PwC and KPMG/PCAOB inspection data theft— and three more where my reporting resulted in a legal or regulatory impact on the companies—ADT, Symantec, and IGC.
Update: KPMG: Whittle and Holder Plead Guilty
/in Featured, Pure Content, The Case Against The AuditorsKPMG partner Thomas Whittle broke ranks on October 29 and pleaded guilty to all five criminal charges. He is now cooperating with prosecutors. Do you have more information about this case? Leave a comment here, one I can leave unposted, if you wish to communicate confidentially or DM me on Twitter @retheauditors for Signal encrypted confidential messaging instructions.
New Stories about the KPMG-PCAOB Scandal
/in Audit Firm Management, Audit Quality, Latest, Pure Content, The Case Against The Auditors“Innovation demands risk-taking… which, in turn, entails redefining failure, stripping away its power to inhibit.” Chairman and CEO of KPMG Lynne Doughtie
KPMG Takes Its Turn With a Big 4 -Sized Scandal
/1 Comment/in Madoff, Pure Content, Your CareerThe KPMG/PCAOB scandal is neither the first or last time a Big 4 firm reminded us that there’s nothing special anymore about being a Big 4 firm professional The firms, and their partners, are not capitalist eunuchs, immune from perverse incentives that advocates for free markets say, if big enough, can corrupt anyone.
McKenna Interviewed On KPMG And FIFA By The Bottom Line Canada
/1 Comment/in Pure Content, The Big 4 And GlobalizationI was interviewed by The Bottom Line magazine in Canada back in June on KPMG’s role as auditor of FIFA.
US Department of Justice v KPMG: Document Shows “Too Few To Fail” Was Opening Premise
/2 Comments/in Attorney-Client Privilege, PCAOB, Pure Content, Regulators, Laws, Standards, Regulations, Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC, The Case Against The AuditorsA 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.
Benjamin Wey Sent Me A Threatening Email About AgFeed
/10 Comments/in Fraud, Pure ContentI received a threatening email yesterday from Chinese stock promoter Tianbing “Benjamin” Wey, whose New York Global Group (“NYGG”) was closely affiliated with the failed, fraudulent Chinese hog producer AgFeed during the period under litigation by the SEC and shareholders. He did not like my mention of his relationship to AgFeed, its auditor and its executives in a recent post about AgFeed’s audit firms. His claims are not only strange but wrong.
VC Horowitz Implicates Auditor PwC In Story About Dodging Backdating Bullet
/3 Comments/in Latest, Pure Content, The Case Against The AuditorsImagine my surprise when Ben Horowitz, one half of the venture capital team of Andreessen Horowitz, wrote a blog post about dodging a stock option backdating jail term that also implicates PwC.
Nothing SOx-y About SEC’s JP Morgan “Whale” Settlement
/11 Comments/in Food for Thought, Fraud, Latest, Pure ContentIf the JP Morgan “Whale” settlement was a true Sarbanes-Oxley success story, we’d see some bank executives going to jail. For a change.
Early Returns: Scott London, KPMG and Another Partner Trading On Inside Information
/1 Comment/in Fraud, Independence, PCAOB, Regulators, Laws, Standards, Regulations, Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC, The Case Against The AuditorsThis is the fourth big insider trading case in the least few years against a senior tenured partner that betrayed the public’s trust. In none of the cases did the firm’s “extensive” and “comprehensive” independence compliance programs spot the behavior or the illegal actions. Stay tuned. There will be much more to this story, I guarantee.
Foreclosure Settlement Shuts Down Reviews: Banks Will Continue Business As Usual
/21 Comments/in Pure Content, Regulators, Laws, Standards, Regulations, The Big 4 And ConsultingIt’s easy to forget, with all the propaganda being published by major media, why these Fed/OCC consent decrees were issued in the first place. The fact that a borrower may be in default does not negate the overwhelming evidence that court cases have provided that banks proceeded fraudulently and illegally in some foreclosures and looted those borrowers and institutional investors in mortgage securities by charging fraudulent and illegal fees in the process.