[Ed. Note: The following is reprinted with permission from Re:Balance, a blog published by Attorney Jim Peterson. Jim’s views on the Big Four accounting firms seem to be very much in line with ours. Enjoy!] Tired Old Boys’ Clubs — A Lesson on How the Eras End by Jim Peterson, Esq.Can a long-vibrant institution be […]
Autonomy and the "willful shock" that accompanies the strategic termination of willful blindness
Guest Post by Charles Seavey [Ed. Note: I found this article in a LinkedIn industry group. With the author’s permission, it is reposted here. Charles Seavey is a lawyer, consultant and writer. He is one of the few folks who writes more articles than I do! Recently I was asked why we post so many […]
Another Big 4 Accounting Firm Called On The Carpet
by Brian Mahany It’s no secret that we are not fans of the Big 4 accounting firms, particularly when it comes to their auditing practices. It’s not these firms don’t employ good people, they do. Rather, the huge accounting firms frequently lose their independence, especially when called upon to audit a client that generates millions […]
Accounting Firms Chosen To Monitor National Mortgage Settlement
by Brian Mahany Joseph Smith is a powerful guy. He is the monitor of the $25 billion national mortgage settlement hammered out by 49 states, the federal government and several large lenders including our perennial “favorites”, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi and Chase. As part of the settlement, several major lenders promised to clean […]
Audit Firm Named In Class Action Suit For Failure To Detect Fraud
The audit system in the United States is largely broken. Most auditors are financially dependent on the very people they are required to audit. If you perform a rigorous audit and get a reputation for not giving clients high markets on their financials you will soon find yourself with no clients. Fail to report something, […]
Another Black Eye For KPMG And The Audit World
by Brian Mahany Japan’s Financial Services Agency ordered KPMG affiliate KPMG Azsa to dramatically improve the quality of their audits. The Japanese regulator had similar words for Ernst & Young ShinNihon as well. This action comes on the heels of one of the worst accounting scandals in Japanese history, last year’s revelation that Olympus, a […]
Accounting Firm Sued In Ponzi Scheme Case
[Updated through 2021] Here is a new twist. A hedge fund sues an accounting firm for its failure to uncover a Ponzi scheme operated by one of the hedge fund’s traders. That might sound farfetched, but it’s not. New York accounting firm Rothstein Kass was sued by two hedge fund managers in San Francisco Superior […]
When Auditors Lie
by Brian Mahany In recent months we have run several stories about the sloppy auditing practices of several accounting firms. From David Friehling, the solo practitioner who served as Bernie Madoff’s auditor, to Arthur Andersen LLP, once one of the “big 5” accounting firms and auditors of Enron, sloppy auditing is nothing new. Investors and […]