Articles by Curtis Verschoor

A&A

Whistleblowing Reaches Center Stage

Court cases and events involving whistleblowing are appearing in news headlines with greater frequency, and awareness about the importance of speaking up, when witnessing wrongdoing continues to grow.
2968
A&A

Complying with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

The DOJ and SEC recently published a guide that provides insight into the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and how the agencies carry out their ongoing fight against corruption within companies throughout the world.
2009
A&A

New Report Shows Changing Fraud Environment

The latest Kroll "Global Fraud Report" shows the incidence and cost of fraud have decreased over the last year, yet fraud still remains an important issue for all companies around the world. And a DOJ suit against Standard & Poor's highlights the need for oversight of the credit rating industry.
2370
Tax

Taxing Dividends and Capital Gains Income Fairly

The tax rates and policies on income from dividends and long-term capital gains lead to some unintended negative consequences. In trying to help stamp out fraud in financial reporting and add more fairness into the tax system, closer examination of these policies is warranted.
1800
A&A

Credit Rating Agency Performance Needs Improvement

The continued poor performance of the credit rating agencies in providing adequate assurance of the creditworthiness of debt instruments requires stronger action from regulatory bodies.
2161
A&A

Responsibility Reporting Is Getting More Attention

Surveys highlight increased prevalence and value of sustainability and corporate responsibility reporting for public companies, but lack of standardization and notable failures show that more needs to be done before these reports can be truly reliable.
2158
A&A

Proposed Whistleblower Standard Presents Challenges

The IESBA has issued an exposure draft intended to encourage accountants to blow the whistle on unethical companies or individuals; some of the changes may conflict with other ethical responsibilities.
3215
A&A

Has SOX Been Successful?

Sometimes overlooked in the debate about SOX are the contributions it has made in generating a greater focus on improved corporate governance and stronger ethics and compliance programs. Needed improvement in audit quality is a continuing concern.
9942
A&A

A Disturbing Thirty Days

Within a single thirty-day period beginning on June 12, 2012, a number of fraud and ethics-related items made news throughout the business world.
4064
Tax

New Survey of Workplace Ethics Shows Surprising Results

Findings from a survey of ethics in the workplace may portend a future downward shift in business ethics. The percentage of companies with a weak ethical culture is on the rise, as is the number of employees who experienced retaliation for blowing the whistle on observed misconduct.
6429
A&A

Credit Rating Should Be Improved, Not Discarded

Regulatory downgrading of the role of credit raters is misguided. Development of ethical and professional standards would make information needed by investors more useful and reliable. The culpability of credit rating agencies in contributing to the financial crisis has been debated, but without conclusive agreement.
2128
Tax

Teaching How to Cheat

Concerns about cheating in school are nothing new, but they usually don't include teachers. The widespread scandals of teachers cheating on standardized tests provide the wrong ethical guidance to those who will later staff and lead business organizations.
2385
A&A

Bank Controls Lacking, Regulation Insufficient

Significant losses by banks have demonstrated the need for improved risk management and internal controls to avoid past mistakes. To be successful, these changes require a stronger ethical culture, not more of the same regulatory actions that failed in the past.
2381
Practice Management

Measuring trust in business

Trust is a vital element of business, yet it's difficult to measure and often gets overlooked. Two research groups have devised their own rating systems to determine which companies are most trustworthy.
3365
Education & Careers

Do for-profit colleges deserve taxpayer support?

The for-profit college industry has come under a firestorm of controversy from a number of sources for allegedly using misleading, possibly fraudulent, marketing, and student recruiting practices.
4040
A&A

Did Ernst & Young really assist financial fraud?

As the auditor of Lehman Brothers, Ernst & Young approved the use of Repo 105 transactions. These transactions were characterized as sales of assets and created a misleading picture of Lehman's financial position during the financial meltdown.
8600
Tax

How an embezzler stole millions from a small company

New details have emerged on the methods used and the outcomes following the case of 47-year-old convicted embezzler Sujata “Sue” Sachdeva, who was the trusted 15-year veteran vice president of finance, secretary, and principal accounting officer of Koss Corporation.
9047
A&A

SEC has five prominent fraud cases in one month

July was a busy month for the SEC. Five of the enforcement cases charged or settled that month involved large, well-known companies, including KBR, Goldman Sachs, Dell, General Electric, and Citigroup.
3519
Tax

Increased motivation for whistle-blowing

New statutory and regulatory changes provide greater rewards to individuals who blow the whistle on fraudulent activities and to organizations that actively encourage an effective ethical culture.
11270
Education & Careers

Colleges and universities must be ethical

The actions of colleges and universities provide examples to their students of how to act with – or without – a high level of ethical standards. From grading practices to sustainability, these institutions need to be cognizant of the message they send.
1951

Pages

Voice of the Editor

What would you do if one of your clients won the lottery? We asked several accountants to weigh in with their advice for the lucky Powerball winner, and the tips we received are useful for anyone who receives a windfall, whether it's a lottery win, an inheritance, a big bonus on the job, or a killing in the stock market.
Read more
Gail Perry, CPA
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, AccountingWEB
editor@accountingweb.com
ADVERTISEMENT

Weekly video update

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

accountingweb.co.uk

More

Most read

Show more
ADVERTISEMENT