- Dell Delays 10-K Filing, May Restate Earnings
Dell announced yesterday that it will delay filing second-quarter financial reports and is suspending its share buyback program due to a widening investigation into its accounting practices -- specifically "accruals, reserves and other balance sheet items that may affect the company's previously reported financial results," according to The New York Times. [more]
- SAP Announces New Governance, Risk and Compliance Apps
As promised earlier this year, SAP AG will soon release three new governance, risk and compliance (GRC) applications based on its new service-oriented architecture (SOA). [more]
- Public Accounting vs. Management Accounting: Is SOX Biased?
Does Sarbanes-Oxley carry an inherent professional bias that emphasizes public accounting over management accounting? [more]
- Fraudulent Financial Statements Costliest Form of Fraud
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) has released its 2006 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, a comprehensive report that sheds light on occupational fraud and abuse while offering stark lessons and valuable insight about its prevention and detection. [more]
- PwC Faces IRS Audit
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the largest accounting firm in the world, is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service for potential violations in reporting its own taxes, according to a published report. [more]
- Paper Highlights Global Developments in Internal Control
In recent years, global guidance and regulations have focused on the development and strengthening of internal control systems as a means of minimizing business risk and protecting shareholder investments. [more]
- Experts Call Expensing Stock Options Improper Accounting
A University of California, Berkeley management journal became the focus in reopening the debate on stock option expensing last week when it published a position paper calling on the SEC to repeal the Financial Accounting Standards Board's new standard requiring the expensing of employee stock options. [more]
- Enron Gives Birth to the Chief Accounting Officer
The Summer issue of Business Ethics magazine contains an interesting article -- Ethics After Enron -- that examines how many executives are taking ethics programs very seriously, making sure that they are more than "just corporate window-dressing. [more]
- Has the Regulatory Pendulum Swung too Far?
New U.S. treasury secretary Hank Paulson said Tuesday in his first speech since taking office that he feels the regulatory "pendulum" has swung too far in response to high-profile corporate scandals and that "we need to go through a period of readjustment. [more]
- Rating SarbOx Challenges
What is the single most challenging Sarbanes-Oxley issue today? [more]
- SEC to Overhaul Executive Compensation Rules
Beginning next year, the SEC will require public companies to provide more information than ever about executive compensation in what amounts to the largest overhaul of benefit disclosure policy since 1992. [more]
- Bear Stearns Proposes New Model for Valuing Stock Options
Analysts at Bear Stearns proposed an interesting new model this week for U.S. [more]
- Cox Won't Back Down on Hedge Fund Regulations
In testimony Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox called for "emergency" steps to reinstate parts of a rule that required hedge funds to register with the SEC, according to CNNMoney.com. [more]
- Cognos Cleared in SEC Review
The SEC's Division of Corporation Finance has cleared Cognos Inc., the Ottawa, Canada-based business performance management software vendor, of any wrongdoing in its revenue-recognition policies for post-contract customer support. [more]
- FASB to Overhaul Lease Accounting (But Not Now)
The Financial Accounting Standards Board voted unanimously last Wednesday to comprehensively reconsider the current rules on lease accounting, which would make it tougher for companies to keep leases of real estate and equipment off their balance sheets. [more]
- Executive Compensation Disclosure Rules: Son of Sarbanes?
The most often heard gripes about Sarbanes-Oxley -- and those that resonate the loudest -- have had little to do with the spirit of the law itself, but rather call into question the immense amount of time and resources companies have to spend to stay on top of compliance efforts. [more]
- Backdating Problem Severely Underestimated
The stock option backdating drama continues. [more]
- Compliance Issues Still a Priority
Finance departments' compliance requirements and performance objectives frequently clash, according to a recent KPMG survey of Canadian senior executives. [more]
- Fingers Point to Auditors in Backdating Scandal
"Where were the auditors? [more]
- SEC Hedge Fund Rule Comes Under Fire
In a significant blow to the SEC's attempt at stricter oversight of hedge funds, a federal court ruled Friday that an SEC regulation requiring hedge fund advisers to register with regulators as investment advisers was "arbitrary" because it exempts funds with 100 or fewer investors from Investment Company Act regulations but requires registration for those with 15 or more investors under another act. [more]
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