Month: March 2015

Untangling New Lease Accounting Rules; To get around this complexity and burden, companies might try to stop doing leases and start structuring them as service contracts

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http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2015/03/13/avolon-cfo-untangling-new-lease-accounting-rules/

March 13, 2015, 2:44 AM ET

Avolon CFO: Untangling New Lease Accounting Rules

NOELLE KNOX

Editor, CFO Journal

Avolon Holdings Ltd.AVOL +0.42%, a global aircraft-leasing company based in Ireland, went public in December on the New York Stock Exchange and had its first quarterly conference call last week. U.S. accounting regulators are debating sweeping changes for long-term capital leases, and CFO Journal Editor Noelle Knox spoke at length about the ramifications with Avolon Chief Financial Officer Andy Cronin. Here is an edited excerpt:

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is evaluating how to change standards for lease accounting. Will the variations between U.S. and international standards be a challenge to manage? Continue reading →

[Flashback] BRE-X: Inside The $6 Billion Gold Fraud That Shocked The Mining Industry

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http://www.businessinsider.sg/bre-x-6-billion-gold-fraud-indonesia-2014-10/?op=1#.VQK62NKUdGM

Posted by Idu Inu Yati, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

In 1993, a prospector named Michael de Guzman walked out of the jungles of Borneo with extraordinary news: he found gold.

This is according to MasterMinds, a Canadian true crime documentary television series produced by truTV.

For the next three years, de Guzman produced thousands of core samples riddled with gold. Canada’s CBC News has a detailed timeline of the events. Continue reading →

ACCT004 Course Quote by Pixar’s Founder Ed Catmull

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Related:

“ARPA’s mandate – to support smart people in a variety of areas – was carried out based on the unwavering presumption that researchers would try to do the right things and, in ARPA’s view, over-managing them was counterproductive. ARPA’s administrators did not hover over the shoulders of those of us working on the projects they funded, nor did they demand that our work have direct military applications. They simply trusted us to innovate. This kind of trust gave me the freedom to tackle all sorts of complex problems, and I did so with gusto. Not only did I often sleep on the floor of the computer rooms to maximize time on the computer, but so did many of my fellow graduate students. We were young, driven by the sense that we were inventing the field from scratch – and that was exciting beyond words. For the first time, I saw a way to simultaneously create art and develop a technical understanding of how to create a new kind of imagery. Making pictures with a computer spoke to both sides of my brain. To be sure, the picture that could be rendered on a computer were very crude in 1969, but the act of inventing new algorithms and seeing better pictures as a result was thrilling to me. In its own way, my childhood dream, was reasserting itself. At the age of 26, I set a new goal: to develop a way to animate, not with a pencil but with a computer, and to make the images compelling and beautiful enough to use in the movies. Perhaps, I thought, I could become an animator after all.”

– Pixar’s founder Ed Catmull

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Investors in an unregulated oil scheme have alleged negligence in a lawsuit that they hope will establish the principle that “introducers” who informally endorse investments can be held responsible

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http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/31bdc458-c74b-11e4-8e1f-00144feab7de.html#axzz3UFFEetSI

March 11, 2015 12:29 pm

Lawsuit targets investment ‘introducers’

Judith Evans

Investors in an unregulated oil scheme have alleged negligence in a lawsuit that they hope will establish the principle that “introducers” who informally endorse investments can be held responsible. Continue reading →

A Split Over Protecting Investors; The Labor Department is moving ahead of the SEC on broker rules; The financial industry is resisting attempts to require brokers to put clients’ interests ahead of their own

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-12/on-broker-rules-sec-falls-behind-labor-department

A Split Over Protecting Investors; The Labor Department is moving ahead of the SEC on broker rules

byDave MichaelsRobert Schmidt

1:23 AM SGT
March 13, 2015

The Obama administration wants the Department of Labor, which oversees employee savings plans such as 401(k)s, to propose sweeping regulations that would curb conflicts of interest among brokers who handle investments for people saving for retirement. The Securities and Exchange Commission has long considered imposing similar rules on all brokers but so far shows no sign of enacting them. Continue reading →

‘Catch Me If You Can’ Con Man Says Technology Aids Fraud

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-13/-catch-me-if-you-can-con-man-says-technology-makes-fraud-easier

‘Catch Me If You Can’ Con Man Says Technology Aids Fraud

bySuzi Ring

March 13, 2015

(Bloomberg) — Technology makes it a lot easier to cheat today, according to reformed con artist Frank Abagnale. The man who made $2.5 million in the 1960s as a teenager faking identities as an airline pilot, lawyer and doctor now works with the FBI and others on cybercrime. He even had a role in the investigation into last year’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. hack, he said in an interview this week near Trafalgar Square in London. Continue reading →

Prosecutors raid POSCO E&C over alleged slush funds accumulated by exaggerating the amount the South Korean company needed to pay local subcontractors in Vietnam

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http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2015/03/123_175158.html

Updated : 2015-03-13 12:18

Prosecutors raid POSCO E&C over alleged slush funds

Prosecutors raided the office of POSCO Engineering & Construction Co. on Friday in connection with allegations of slush funds created by its executives and employees.
Late last month, the construction arm of South Korea’s top steelmaker POSCO said two executives and about 10 employees in charge of construction projects in Vietnam were reprimanded in July for operating illegal slush funds worth about 10 billion won (US$8.9 million).
The money, which had been accumulated by exaggerating the amount the South Korean company needed to pay local subcontractors in Vietnam, was later given out as monthly rebates to contractors from 2009 to 2012, it said.
During a parliamentary interpellation session on Feb. 26, Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo ordered a thorough investigation into the case. (Yonhap)

[Flashback] In rare sign of dissent, investor calls for change at Hyundai Motor; Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong Koo indicted in 2006 for embezzlement and misappropriation of corporate funds to create a $110m “slush fund”; Accounting fraud uncovered at Hyundai Merchant

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114775648308553990

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ecd7b056-4f5a-11d9-86b3-00000e2511c8.html#axzz3UEqnNfxu

http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/02/05/us-hyundai-chairman-chronology-idUSSP25001420070205

Posted by Padma LAU Heng Ee, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Business, Singapore Management University

Hyundai Case Shakes Korea

Indictment of Chairman Sharpens Debate Over ‘Chaebol’ Model

JATHON SAPSFORD in Tokyo, and GORDON FAIRCLOUGH and

LINA YOON in Seoul Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated May 17, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

The indictment of one of South Korea’s most respected industrialists brings to a boil tensions that have simmered for years between the country’s secretive corporations and regulators seeking to raise standards of corporate governance.

In Seoul yesterday, South Korea’s Supreme Prosecutor’s Office indicted Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong Koo on charges of embezzlement and misappropriation of corporate funds. Senior Prosecutor Chae Dong Wook said Mr. Chung created a 103.4 billion won ($110 million) “slush fund” that was used to pay for influence among government bureaucrats, financial-industry executives and possibly politicians. Continue reading →

[Flashback] Accounting Fraud, Family In-Fighting and Succession Transitioning: Lotte Chairman’s Brother Probed Over Stock Trading

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http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/common/printpreview.asp?categoryCode=117&newsIdx=58990

Posted by Joel CHUA Yong Sheng, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Business, Singapore Management University

Lotte Chairman’s Brother Probed Over Stock Trading

By Bae Ji-sook

Staff Reporter
Shin Joon-ho, the younger brother of Lotte Group Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho, was questioned as a “person of interest” in connection with allegations that he made profits illegally during stock trading. Continue reading →

U.S. regulator pushes reforms for microcap market-making brokers; Regulator Urges Tougher Rules for Microcap Market

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/04/sec-microcap-brokers-idUSL1N0W616J20150304

http://ww2.cfo.com/capital-markets/2015/03/regulator-urges-tougher-rules-microcap-market/

U.S. regulator pushes reforms for microcap market-making brokers

Wed, Mar 4 2015

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) – A top U.S. regulator is calling for new rules for brokers who make markets in over-the-counter microcap stocks, saying the current regulations are lax and may lead to poor-quality pricing. Continue reading →