http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324705104578149222319470606
Posted by Katharine TAN Pei Shi, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
Auditing wasn’t all Deloitte LLP did for Autonomy Corp., the software firm recently accused of accounting improprieties by its parent company. To many observers, that sort of multitasking is potentially an industry problem.
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Posted by Terence CHUA Tong Liang, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Business, Singapore Management University
Below is the interview done by China Money Podcast with guest Bing Lin, portfolio manager at Hong Kong-based US$1.4 billion-under-management Keywise Capital Management, who speaks about why he believes there are still many major overseas listed Chinese companies with fraudulent accounting practices, and how 2014 will be a great year for shorting certain overseas-listed Chinese stocks.
Q: China announced plans to launch a Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect pilot program in six months. How will this impact hedge funds investing in the Greater China region?
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Substitution between Real and Accruals-Based Earnings Management after Voluntary Adoption of Compensation Clawback Provisions.
Chan, Lilian H.1Chen, Kevin C. W.2 Tai Yuan Chen2 Yangxin Yu3
Accounting Review. Jan2015, Vol. 90 Issue 1, p147-174. 28p. 5 Charts.
Abstract:
To deter financial misstatements, many companies have recently adopted compensation recovery policies–commonly known as ”clawbacks”–that authorize the board to recoup compensation paid to executives based on misstated financial reports. Clawbacks have been shown to reduce financial misstatements and increase investors’ confidence on earnings information. We show that the benefits come with an unintended consequence of certain firms substituting for accruals management with real transactions management (e.g., reduce research and development [R&D] expenditures), especially firms with strong incentives to achieve short-term earnings targets, such as firms with high growth or high transient institutional ownership. As such, the total amount of earnings management does not decrease subsequent to clawback adoption. We further show that although real transactions management temporarily boosts those clawback adopters’ short-term profitability and stock performance, this trend reverses after three years. In summary, clawbacks may have unexpected effects for a subset of firms whose managers are under greater pressure to meet earnings goals.
Mutual Fund Billionaire Accused of Fraud in Suit
JANUARY 14, 2015 3:21 PM January 14, 2015 3:21 pm 9 Comments
Charles B. Johnson built Franklin Resources, the publicly traded mutual fund business, into a juggernaut before he retired.Credit Robert Holmgren
Charles B. Johnson has been lauded for numerous accomplishments. He built Franklin Resources, the publicly traded mutual fundbusiness, into a juggernaut that has nearly $900 billion under management and a market value of about $34 billion. He is a highly respected philanthropist, recently pledging $250 million to Yale University, his alma mater. He is said, by Forbes, to be worth about $6.5 billion and is the largest single shareholder of the San Francisco Giants, the reigning World Series champions.
But now Mr. Johnson, 82, stands accused of helping defraud the heir of one of the earliest investors in Franklin Resources out of $150 million. Continue reading
Anonymous letter sparks off mTouche discovery of RM6.3m fraud
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
KUALA LUMPUR: mTouche Technology Bhd’s shares were untraded at 21.5 sen on Wednesday as the company provided details and lodged a police report over the possible financial irregularities concerning operating expenditure transactions totalling RM6.3m from February 2009 to October 2010 following an anonymous letter addressed to its audit committee. Continue reading
Related news: (1) Founder Group executives held in graft probe following Zenith allegations that executives have committed insider trading, selling state assets, rigging stocks, as well as bribery and forgery of documents (Link)
(2) Court orders 3b yuan in Founder Securities assets to be frozen; Beijing Zenith has accused Founder Group directors of various crimes, including insider trading, money laundering, embezzling state assets, forging documents (Link)
Founder Securities denies related company embezzled 2.8 billion yuan
Wednesday, 14 January, 2015, 5:26pm
Toh Han Shihhanshih.toh@scmp.com
Mainland brokerage Founder Securities has denied reports its business was disrupted after a related company, Founder Finance, embezzled 2.8 billion yuan (HK$3.5 billion) from Founder Securities for “emergency” purposes, but said it would deposit an unspecified amount of money with Founder Finance. Continue reading
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/14/us-fbi-wolfofwallstreet-idUSKBN0KN25Y20150114
FBI raids Florida firm with ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ link: witnesses
4:15pm EST
By Aruna Viswanatha and Zachary Fagenson
WASHINGTON/BOCA RATON, Fla. (Reuters) – U.S. FBI agents on Wednesday raided the offices of Med-Care Diabetic & Medical Supplies Inc, a Florida medical device company whose executive vice president helped inspire the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street,” according to a Reuters reporter and other witnesses. Continue reading
AsianExtractor: Unearthing Accounting Fraud in Asia 