Getco’s deal for Knight Capital was a good-old reverse merger, just like the chop suey the Chinese have been using to perpetrate frauds right under the SEC’s nose. Please read to the bottom. I don’t even have to make this stuff up anymore.
The SEC is busy chasing Ponzi schemers and foreign bribers. But bogus accounting remains a bigger danger to the markets. (More links.)
Something is still missing today, the one year anniversary of the bankruptcy of MF Global.
What’s still missing from this sordid affair is an accounting of the whereabouts of the financial auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Chapter 21 of Sheila Bair’s book, “Bull By The Horns,” is a blow-by-blow account of the wrangling and dealmaking that resulted in two settlements that satisfy neither consumer advocates nor the borrowers that were harmed by abusive mortgage servicer activities.
Based on the Standard Chartered Bank experience, it’s clear to me that a Big Four firm that wants to grow its consulting business is sorely tempted to “work with” a client it wants to do business with in the future, as a consultant or even as a future auditor.
“Reputation risk” doesn’t get in the way of audit firms helping criminal banks do illegal things. “Reputation risk” is now an oxymoron. Bankers and their enablers, the audit firms, have no risk to their reputation from anyone that matters.
The new CEO of Yahoo was already a sensation before she announced, three hours after Yahoo announced her new job, that she is six months pregnant. I waded into the conversation reluctantly.
What I wrote this week about the MF Global trustee’s “investigation report”, JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon and his testimony on the “whale” trade for the US Senate, and the lure of London. Those topics and so much more…
The post below was originally published at Forbes.com on August 22, 2011. Given the SEC’s recent actions against Deloitte Shanghai regarding the firm’s unwillingness to provide audit workpapers for their former client Longtop, I thought it was helpful to make sure you saw it.
John Carney, who runs the NetNet Blog at CNBC, wrote a column last week highlighting mine at Forbes.com on Bank of America and Warren Buffet. He picked my comments on PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bank of America’s auditor, to highlight.
Warren Buffett’s investment in Bank of America was big news yesterday and it still reverberating. Forget the “Buffett effect.” I am now enjoying the “front page of Forbes.com” effect. Within an hour of posting it yesterday the story had over 3,000 page views. It is now my number one highest traffic post for my column there.
Don’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.
I’ve recently written two pieces for Forbes.com and my column, Accounting Watchdog about Wall Street and criminality. Here are two stories about Wall Street criminals and those that defend them.
