Liechtenstein is tiny: it is 15 miles long, has a population of under 35,000 and one main town. It’s existence is effectively the consequence of a bad real estate deal by the Holy Roman Empire in the 18th century; it became a sovereign state in the 19th century. But that’s a joke. Even its so-called [...]
Accountancy Age reports:
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday filed a settled enforcement action against a Larry Rodda, a former KPMG Consulting principal and managing director, for his role in deceiving investors in a major corporate accounting fraud at the San-Diego, California-based Peregrine Systems.
And adds:
On January 23, Rodda was sentenced to six months in the [...]
KPMG have issued a press release on the OECD meeting in South Africa saying:
An OECD study into the role that tax advisers play in the use of tax minimisation techniques by large companies has recommended that governments should attempt to reduce the demand for aggressive tax planning by encouraging a wider tripartite relationship between revenue [...]
Prem Sikka has a knack of hitting nails on the head. His latest Guardian piece looks at the relationship between the state and accountancy firms. As he puts it:
There is something very odd about the way UK governments deal with administrative failures. In earlier times, rulers called upon obedient high-priests to manage their crises. In [...]
Accountancy Age have reported that:
KPMG has charged £23.7m in fees and expenses to Courts, the collapsed furniture retailer. The majority of the fees have been earned by the accountant’s UK office which has, to date, billed for 55,353 hours of work, collecting £18.5m.
That’s £334 an hour.
Chris Laverty, a KPMG partner said:
This was an incredibly complex [...]
I received a seasonal press release from KPMG this morning. It said:
Under an innovative new agreement announced today, KPMG staff in the UK who use the firm’s American Express Corporate Card to pay for their business expenses will be helping to raise funds for KPMG’s charity of the year, currently Help the Hospices.
Under the agreement, [...]
KPMG have issued a report saying:
Cyprus, Ireland, and Switzerland are the top three countries in a league table of European tax systems, compiled by KPMG International, in which major business organizations across Europe assessed the attractiveness of their domestic tax regimes.
This was based on:
more than 400 interviews of tax professionals in multinational companies across Europe. [...]
Sir Mike Rake has been appointed a board director at Barclays.
They suit each other: he headed a firm heavily tainted by offshore and scandal. Barclays are the UK’s most aggressive bank supporter of offshore, both through Barclays Capital and its activity in promoting haven activity, Ghana being its latest victim.
But let’s not pretend that this [...]
Accountancy Age has reported that:
Sir Mike Rake has been given the high-profile task of policing the new code of conduct for private equity firms that will be released by Sir David Walker tomorrow.
The code is aimed at making the buy-out industry more open and transparent. According to the Times, it is a voluntary code that [...]
An organisation called Fulcrum (unrelated to the firm of accountants of that name in which I am a practitioner) has reported the following results of the American PCOAB reviews of Big 4 audits in the USA:
Sobering, isn’t it?
Why is it that the accountancy profession tolerates these people?
That’s the question I keep asking. I wish I [...]
