Posts Tagged ‘audit firms’
Another Take on Auditors and Compliance Violations
Occasionally strange things happen. So when an auditor friend of mine called me to say he believes this proposal for auditors to look for compliance violations is actually easier than most people suspect, I started taking notes — because an auditor defending this idea is a rare thing indeed. The proposal, from the Public Company…
Read MorePCAOB Compliance Proposal Draws Heat
Comment letters have begun to arrive for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s proposal to have auditors look for compliance and legal violations at their client companies. So far the idea has plenty of critics — although plenty of that criticism is stuff compliance officers will like to hear. The PCAOB’s proposal is to require…
Read MorePCAOB Blasts Audit Firm Deficiencies
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is taking audit firms to task this week, issuing a special report about the most recent round of PCAOB inspections that found an “unsettling trend” of ever-more deficient audits — results that the PCAOB chair blasted as “absolutely unacceptable.” “These findings are absolutely unacceptable, and audit firms must make…
Read MoreMore on Auditors and Compliance Violations
Today let’s return to that proposal to have audit firms look more aggressively for compliance and legal violations at their client companies. One of my spies in the audit world recently provided me a glimpse into his firm’s preliminary discussions about this idea — and their concerns are well worth compliance and internal audit professionals’…
Read MorePCAOB and Compliance Violations, Part II
Today I want to revisit last week’s proposal from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board that audit firms should look more aggressively for compliance and legal violations at their client companies. There are compelling arguments about why this might be a bad idea, which compliance and internal audit professionals need to consider closely. To understand…
Read MorePCAOB Eyes Compliance Violations
Audit firms may soon be under more pressure to look for potential fraud and other legal or compliance violations at their client companies, and then to report any such findings to the company’s board and senior management promptly. So says a new proposal unveiled today by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Right now the…
Read MoreSilicon Valley Bank: The Oversight Debacle
Today I want to return to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Everyone has been wondering how the bank met its sudden demise, and whose poor oversight allowed that to happen. Now we have more details to help answer those questions — and, ideally, avoid a repeat performance elsewhere. People first trained their fire on…
Read MoreE&Y, the SEC, and ‘Gatekeepers’
The saying in Washington is that it’s not the crime that ruins you; it’s the coverup. Ernst & Young is learning this week how true that is, with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s $100 million fine against the firm for cheating on CPA exams and then failing to be forthcoming about the breadth of that…
Read MoreCohnReznick Dinged $1.9M on Sloppy Procedures
The Securities and Exchange Commission has fired a shot across the bow of the auditing world, charging audit firm CohnReznick and three of its partners on Wednesday with improper professional conduct involving two corporate clients that had previously faced charges of accounting fraud. The companies in question are Sequential Brands, which the SEC charged with…
Read MoreEx-KPMG Boss Fined on Insider Tip Scandal
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has fined the former vice-chair of KPMG’s audit practice $100,000 for his role in a scandal where KPMG offered jobs to PCAOB employees in exchange for confidential information about upcoming inspections of KPMG audits. You might remember the story from several years ago. The feds indicted three KPMG partners…
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