Last week's deadline came and went. Nine hundred forty-seven companies were asked by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide CEO/CFO certification of their financial statements by 5:30 p.m. EST Wednesday, August 14. Although a few stragglers have yet to be checked off the list as either complying with the SEC request or being unable to comply, most of the companies have turned in their sworn statements attesting to the accuracy of the firm's financial statements.To date, 12 companies have indicated they are unable to comply with the order.

Investors breathed a collective sigh of relief when the markets closed up on August 14, 2002 on preliminary indications the vast majority of companies had met an important deadline set by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC had given CEOs and CFOs of designated large companies until the end of the day to swear to the accuracy of their companies' financial results, and many waited until the very last minute. The SEC is still sifting through the last-minute deluge and publicly tagging statements that are inconsistent with the standard SEC format.

The financial reports for KPMG Consulting for the current quarter ending June 30, 2002 show a 19 percent drop in revenues and a 98 percent drop in net income. Revenues for the quarter are $582 million compared with $722 million for the same period last year. Net income for the quarter is $404,000 compared with $22 million for the same quarter last year.

Congressional lawmakers, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the accounting profession are all struggling to restore confidence in the financial reporting process, but Madison Avenue advertising agencies seem to be going off in the other direction. They hope to capitalize on the credibility crisis by building business for their clients on the basis of investors' fears and doubts.

With dozens of companies deciding to switch their method of accounting for stock options this year, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) agreed on August 7, 2002 to consider a significant change in the transition requirements that apply to the year of the switch.

Silicon Valley workers were provided with telephone and e-mail hot lines to send tips about accounting irregularities and securities frauds directly to federal authorities. These fraud tip services are believed to be the first of their kind in the United States. The services were established by the Northern California divisions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), working with the Northern California divisions of the U.S.

CFO Magazine has published the results of the first in a series of surveys of CFOs of publicly traded companies. Senior financial executives at 141 publicly traded companies participated in the survey. While not definitive, the results are fascinating.Results of this first survey, the CFO Survey of Corporate Financial Planning, show that a surprising 42% of the companies surveyed use special-purpose entities, of the sort that got Enron into trouble, to keep debt off of their financial statements.

Yesterday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 146, Accounting for Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities. The statement has been six years in the making. It arrives at the tail end of an economic downturn that has forced many companies to make difficult decisions of the type addressed by the standard.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges yesterday against Adelphia Communications Corporation, its founder, his three sons, and two senior executives. Earlier in the day, the founder and two sons were led from a Manhattan apartment building in handcuffs. The SEC's complaint charges that Adelphia fraudulently excluded billions of dollar of liabilities from its consolidated financial statements by hiding them on the books of off-balance sheet affiliates.