Global Audit Firms Take “Pay To Play” From Sponsored Content to Conferences
If we can’t trust journalists to sort out who’s telling the truth and who’s just selling us, who can we trust?
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Deloitte And Wall Street Journal Exclusive For Sponsored Content
/4 Comments/in Food for Thought, Latest, Pure ContentThe Wall Street Journal has been accepting sponsored content, in an exclusive contract with Deloitte, for a while for its CFO Journal, CIO Journal and now a new publication, Risk & Compliance Journal. You may not have noticed. It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between news and advertising.
My Big Fat Overrated CEO: McKenna On Dimon On The Keiser Report
/6 Comments/in Food for Thought, LatestI taped an episode of the Keiser Report last week while in New York. The focus was Jamie Dimon with a bit of MF Global thrown in for heat. Max Keiser, the host, asked me this question: Why does Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase still have a job?
More Sarbanes-Oxley Anniversary Thoughts
/9 Comments/in Food for Thought, Latest, Pure ContentThe day my OpEd in the Financial Times was published, July 30, there were many other stories in other publications marking the occasion of Sarbanes-Oxley’s tenth anniversary. Most of them focused on the lack of prosecutions of CEOs and CFOs for false financial statement certification crimes.
New @Forbes: Bank of America Buys Time With Buffett Effect
/in You Can Quote Me On ThatWarren 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.
New @Forbes: Bank of America Plays Hide And Seek Using Fannie Mae
/in Audit Quality, Fair Value, Fraud, Regulators, Laws, Standards, Regulations, SEC, Subprime, You Can Quote Me On ThatMaking the non-obvious connections between the audit firms and their clients, between the clients and each other, and between the firms and each other is getting to be like shooting fish in a barrel.
@Forbes “Why Banks, And Their Auditors, Are Getting Away With Financial System Murder”
/4 Comments/in Pure Content, The Case Against The AuditorsI wrote the post excerpted below for Forbes on February 25th, after seeing a great story by Jonathan Weil at Bloomberg on Citigroup. Now the WSJ reports that, according to “sources”, the SEC and Department of Justice are having trouble making a case against Lehman executives and Ernst and Young in that case. I’m sure […]
@Forbes “Auditors Abandon Investors On Liability Limits”
/in Audit Quality, Food for Thought, Fraud, Liability Caps, Pure ContentTammy Whitehouse over at Compliance Week does a thorough job on the largest audit firms and their fear of catastophic litigation. Yes, they’re admitting it – Tammy says they’re pleading with legislators – and fighting any legislative urges to open more avenues for lawyers and their clients to sue them. The Dodd-Frank Act gave the Securities […]
The Button-Down Mafia: How the Public Accounting Firms Run a Racket on Investors and Thrive While Their Clients Fail
/44 Comments/in Food for ThoughtEnron, WorldCom, HealthSouth, Tyco, Parmalat, Adelphia, AIG…You would think enough lessons had been learned. The financial markets are a mess and the capitalist system threatened. The systems in place to anticipate and preempt market risk failed completely.
The Case Against Ernst & Young: NY AG Cuomo Sues Over Lehman
/44 Comments/in Latest, Pure Content, The Case Against The AuditorsNew York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sued Ernst & Young over their involvement in the Lehman failure. EY was Lehman’s long time auditors and the firm is accused of “permitting Lehman to engage in an accounting fraud.” Hold on tight. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
The Auditors And Financial Regulatory Reform: That Dog Don’t Hunt
/28 Comments/in Food for Thought, Latest, Pure ContentI was invited to talk with Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman (D) and his staff last week about accounting industry reform. It’s not every day that a regular girl from Chicago has a chance to talk with a sitting US Senator about the subject most important to her.
No… I’m not talking about Rosie, my Rott.
I’m talking about the auditors’ role in the financial crisis and their place in the regulatory reform bills now being considered.
Damn The Conflicts: Arthur Levitt Still Won’t Shut Up
/9 Comments/in Latest, Pure ContentArthur Levitt Jr. wrote a recent Op-Ed piece for the New York Times defending “high frequency trading.” As you can see, the conflicts for Mr. Levitt, especially now that he is also advising Goldman Sachs (also a PwC client) and Getco, are numerous.
Mr. Levitt is 78 years old. Isn’t it time for him (and Paul Volcker) to go fishing? Why don’t the numerous media outlets he works/writes for insist that he disclose his conflicts?