inside Sarbanes Oxley

What Does Madoff's Auditor Say? No Answer

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:32:42 PST

The tiny auditor of Bernard Madoff's Wall Street firm, at the center of an alleged $50-billion Ponzi scheme, is being investigated by the district attorney in a New York City suburb. Friehling & Horowitz had signed off on the annual financial statement for Bernard L....

Proposed "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008"

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:36:30 PST

Noteworthy language in the relief regarding market transparency, oversight and audit, and mark-to-market (MTM) FAS157 treatment: Section 114. Market Transparency. 48-hour Reporting Requirement: The Secretary is required, within 2 business days of exercising authority...

Gartner Magic Quadrant - GRC

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:47:05 PDT

Free report from Gartner on leading GRC applications, courtesy of MetricStream.

Survey: Enterprise risk management still a blind spot for insurance CFOs

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:53:10 PDT

The drumbeat for the use of enterprise risk management processes at major companies is getting louder thanks to the credit crisis. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterdayThursday that the credit crisis has exposed weaknesses in many financial firms’...

Large-caps set high corporate governance standards, but independence still an issue for some

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:58:13 PDT

For those that have felt the corporate governance requirements under SOX were unreasonable, consider these findings in Austrailia regarding corporate governance practices. The themes sound all too familiar. Australia’s largest publicly listed companies generally meet all...

Lawsuits may expand Sarbanes-Oxley

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:51:23 PDT

Two lawsuits filed by former employees against Fidelity Investments may resolve a simmering dispute in the securities industry: Whether mutual fund employees are protected by a whistle-blower law adopted in the wake of corporate accounting scandals.The Sarbanes-Oxley Act...

Harsh internal IMF audit calls for 'major changes'

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:43:09 PDT

Internal auditors at the International Monetary Fund released a harshly critical report on governance Wednesday and urged "major changes" to maintain the embattled institution's relevance. The Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF said that effectiveness had been the...

Board Adopts New Ethics and Independence Rule Concerning Communications with Audit Committees and an Amendment to its Existing Tax Services Rule

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:34:38 PDT

The Board adopted Rule 3526 to enhance communication between audit committees and registered firms regarding the firm's independence. Rule 3526 will require a registered public accounting firm, before accepting an initial engagement pursuant to the standards of the PCAOB,...

Crunching the Words

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:28:01 PDT

When auditors seek evidence of fraud, they take a careful look at a company's financial statements. Maybe they should examine other statements, such as those uttered by company executives. That's the theory behind new fraud-detection software developed by two professors at...

SOX Life Blog: Knowledge Management and Corporate Governance

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:03:18 PDT

Knowledge Management (KM) is more than a buzz phrase running through organizations, so if you were hoping this discussion was going to abruptly end, think again. With so many organizations facing labor shortages as the baby boomers look toward retirement, it becomes not...

SOX Life Blog: Reader Question - Understanding & Evaluating Segregation of Duties

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:12:37 PDT

I appreciate when readers share their challenges in applying issues and concepts, as invariably there are an additional dozen people also struggling with this same topic. One professional writes: I am new at this and need to understand about SOX and SOD, do you have any...

PCAOB Considers Adopting New Ethics and Independence Rule Concerning Communications with Audit Committees and Amending its Existing Tax Services Rule

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:31:28 PDT

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has scheduled an open meeting for Tuesday, April 22, at 9:30 a.m. in the Board's open meeting room at 1666 K St. NW, Washington, DC. The Board will consider adopting Rule 3526, Communication with Audit Committees Concerning...

Segregation of Duties Whitepaper: Minimizing the Cost and Complexity of Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:50:01 PDT

Another resource available for those seeking to better understand and manage their SOD risks and issues. Corporate and IT executives continue to feel the pressures of assuring federal regulators, auditors, boards of directors, and stockholders that corporate financial...

Changing Ethics Compliance Rules And Their Potential Impact On Government Contractors And Investors

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:45:57 PDT

Recently, the US Government implemented a new rule and proposed yet more rules regarding ethics and corporate compliance programs for government contractors. This marks a continuing shift towards adopting a more aggressive approach in addressing government contractor fraud,...

Cox Seeks $1B Boost from Congress

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:39:53 PDT

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox asked Congress to approve his nearly $1 billion budget request for fiscal year 2009. If lawmakers agree the SEC needs its first budget increase in three years, the commission will have realized a roughly 4 percent...

The Changing Atmospherics of Corporate Crime Sentencing in the Post Sarbanes-Oxley Act Era

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:43:34 PDT

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has been viewed as a watershed event in dealing with corporate fraud. In addition to its extensive provisions dealing with internal controls and corporate accounting procedures, the law adopted new crimes and pushed the United States...

SOX Life Blog: Flagging the "SEC's SOX for Small Business Reference"

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:38:46 PDT

Dreading your pending SOX initiative? Or the thoughts of IPO? Or how you might refine your implementation? Hopefully, "Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404A Guide for Small Business" from the SEC takes some of the sting out of it. This incorporates much of the thinking and...

How Long Should It Take to Restate?

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:13:06 PDT

Sometimes after announcing they need to restate their financials, companies go into shutdown mode. For up to two years, investors won't see a regulatory filing or hear a significant financial peep while a company tidies up its past. The Securities and Exchange Commission's...

US company restatements soared 1997 to 2006--study

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:32:43 PDT

The frequency of financial restatements by U.S. public companies began to increase before the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform law was passed in 2002, according to a study commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Department and released on Wednesday. But restatements associated...

Blame for restatements may need a rethinking

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:28:09 PDT

The growing number of companies restating their financial results has been cited as a reason to ease U.S. accounting standards by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Treasury Department. But the restatement problem may not be the big bad wolf it was originally...

In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:59:31 PDT

In 2005, federal authorities concluded that a Monsanto consultant had visited the home of an Indonesian official and, with the approval of a senior company executive, handed over an envelope stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. The money was meant as a bribe to win looser...

Standard and Poor's - Use of ERM in Credit Rating

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:45:50 PDT

Maybe so much of the Sarbanes Oxley legistlation has been to simply bring US filers up to par with governance and risk management practices that have been maturing around the globe. Standard and Poor's, one of the leading credit rating agencies for capital markets, has...

It's time to embrace Risk Management

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:26:41 PDT

Since the advent of Sarbanes-Oxley, non-financial corporations have faced increasingly strong regulatory and compliance requirements aimed broadly at increasing transparency in their business practices. Risk management has been addressed at times, but usually as an...

PCAOB Addresses Emerging Audit Issues In 2008 Forums on Auditing in the Small Business Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:15:34 PDT

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board today announced the 2008 series of its Forums on Auditing in the Small Business Environment. These forums are designed to help share important information with registered public accounting firms and public companies operating in...

Proposed Restatement Guidelines Draw Investor Alarm

noreply@blogger.com (Toby Lucich) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:45:32 PDT

Investor advocates are wary of a regulatory proposal that could decrease the number of times companies restate their financial results. Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, contends that the suggested changes to the...