CPAs around the country are wrestling with an ethical question: Now that Sarbanes-Oxley protects CPAs who expose a public company's shoddy accounting practices, should the same standard of disclosure be used for the private companies they audit?The North Carolina State Board of CPA Examiners says "no," at least for now.In North Carolina, CPAs who are retained by privately held companies are still bound by "no-disclosure" rules, and the Board of Examiners thinks that is a good thing."You don't want your CPA to go in and spread information that they may or may not know is true," said Ro

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled two high-profile cases involving PricewaterhouseCoopers in the last few days, resulting in individual auditors being barred from public company audits, but no sanctions against the firm.MicroStrategy, Inc.For more than three years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been investigating PricewaterhouseCoopers and its role in accounting irregularities at MicroStrategy, Inc., once a high-flying player in the heyday of the Dot-com era.Last week, the SEC ended its investigation of PwC, resulting in no enforcement actions agai

In today’s world of reform and oversight, few publicly held companies would be brazen enough to say "no" to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but that is exactly what R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. has done. Reynolds has refused to hand over documents requested in a July 3 SEC subpoena claiming the documents contain confidential information that would harm the company if it fell into the hands of its competitors or the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is now accepting registration information from public accounting firms that plan to continue auditing publicly held companies. Domestic companies have until October 22, 2003 to register, with international firms getting an additional six months.The PCAOB website announced that "Section 102 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 prohibits accounting firms that are not registered with the Board from preparing or issuing audit reports on U.S.

The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has released a report with recommendations for strengthening corporate governance, improving audit effectiveness, and raising the standard of regulation of issuers."Rebuilding Public Confidence in Financial Reporting: An International Perspective," is a multinational effort, with input from representatives from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.The Task Force had three critical goals to address:

One year after the Sarbanes-Oxley Act required CFOs and CEOs to certify their company's financial statements, a new survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) reveals that public companies are asking other corporate financial professionals to vouch for reported information as well.

A survey released by PricewaterhouseCoopers this week indicates that senior executives are less favorable towards Sarbanes-Oxley today than they were in October of last year.

The demise of energy giant Enron continues to ricochet through financial circles with Citicorp and J.P. Morgan Chase agreeing this week to pay a combined $308 million to settle Enron-related charges. The settlement ends a $8.3 billion probe into in questionable loans made to Enron by Citibank, the nation’s largest bank (by assets), and J.P. Morgan Chase, the second largest.

As the one-year anniversary of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform legislation approaches next week, cost and complexity seem to be standing in the way of a favorable opinion from executives. PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PwC)’s "Management Barometer" reported that just 30 percent of the executives surveyed would give Sarbanes-Oxley a favorable rating, which is down from 42 percent in October.