A judge denied PwC’s motion for summary judgement. The case goes to trial in October. Mauro Botta brought an action in district court in California against PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP alleging that PwC wrongfully terminated him in retaliation for a whistleblower complaint he made to the Securities and Exchange Commission about PwC’s auditing practices. There’s been a lot written about the case, which is ongoing.
The TBW v. PwC trial gave the public quite a few interesting disclosures about the audit industry and PwC, including some some pointing to how the firms’ finances, in this case PwC, work.
I was interviewed back in August by Tom Fox for his podcast on FCPA compliance and ethics issues.
This Monadnock Research Note offers an in-depth analysis of organic growth and strategic M&A in non-audit services for the Big Four audit firms, highlighting the growing risks associated with an increasing proportion of advisory relative to audit services at Big Four firms – and the conflict risk that this unique mix of services presents.
Who has the last word on audit quality and compliance with GAAP and SEC filing requirements for US-listed foreign companies? If you were hoping it was the US audit firm, you’ll have to prove your case in court.
If we can’t trust journalists to sort out who’s telling the truth and who’s just selling us, who can we trust?
There are five big auditor independence issues that space prevented a full discussion of yesterday and that are not on the agenda of the PCAOB SAG meeting this week. My hope is that regulators, policy makers and other interested parties will start talking about these issues, too, while I am in DC this week.
I was the luncheon speaker on October 10, 2013 at the annual meeting of the Professional Liability Defense Federation (PLDF). Here is the text of my remarks.
It’s sexier for the media to focus on audit failures by inscrutable China-based Big Four audit firms than the general failure of auditors all over the world to protect investors from fraud.
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.
I wrote this post about a month ago for Forbes.com and my column, “Accounting Watchdog” on a very important legal decision related to a real estate company, Centro, in Australia. Centro’s auditors were PwC.
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.
