http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1157215
Posted by Valerie NG, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
Posted on 2 September 2014 – 05:38am
Written by Eva Yeong
PETALING JAYA: It is ironic that on the same day that Khazanah Nasional Bhd announced its latest recovery plan for troubled national carrier Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) that, once a designated national cargo carrier, Transmile Group Bhd held its third AGM as a private company. Continue reading
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-probes-companies-treatment-of-whistleblowers-1424916002
SEC Probes Companies’ Treatment of Whistleblowers
Agency Officials Concerned About Corporate Backlash Against Whistleblowers
The Securities and Exchange Commisssion has made a push to bring more whistleblower cases since the 2010 passage of the Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill, which created the agency’s whistleblower program. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
RACHEL LOUISE ENSIGN
Feb. 25, 2015 9:00 p.m. ET
The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing whether companies are muzzling corporate whistleblowers.
In recent weeks the agency has sent letters to a number of companies asking for years of nondisclosure agreements, employment contracts and other documents, according to people familiar with the matter and an agency letter viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The inquiries come as SEC officials have expressed concern about a possible corporate backlash against whistleblowers. Continue reading
Lightning strikes twice: $7m fraud at firm controlled by family of late BRW Rich Lister Allan Scott
February 25, 2015 – 5:19PM
Simon Evans
Lightning does strike twice. In a bizarre turn of events, the ASX-listed transport group K&S Corporation, controlled by the family of the late trucking magnate Allan Scott, has uncovered a $7.1 million corporate fraud with the help of forensic accountants McGrathNicol.
The misappropriation of funds comes more than a decade after the company was in the spotlight after a much larger fraud of $22 million was revealed, with the former financial controller of K&S and other entities in Mr Scott’s empire sent to jail in a totally separate set of events. Continue reading
Posted by LAM Xin Hui, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
16 February 2015 · By Shané Schutte
The finance sector has seen a plethora of fraudsters as of late, so it’s not hard to see why financial decision makers are starting to question their data. Continue reading
Posted by Latha Do NADARAJAN , Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
Over the past couple of years, short seller Muddy Waters LLC and similar research firms have broken out from obscurity by exposing alleged fraud and false accounting in companies like Sino-Forest, Focus Media Holding, Orient Paper, China MediaExpress, and others.
After Muddy Waters’ research precipitated the demise of Sino-Forest, which filed for bankruptcy in March and delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange in May, the firm is now taking on the Singapore-based international agricultural commodities trader Olam International. In a newly released research report, it likens Olam to Enron in that there are “material similarities in the way their businesses developed” and their “aggressive” accounting. Olam refutes Muddy Waters’ findings and is suing the California-based firm. Continue reading
http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1365171488190#.VOyW7tH9kdU
Posted by Latha Do NADARAJAN , Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
Washington, D.C., April 11, 2012 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged AutoChina International Limited and 11 investors, including a senior executive and director at the China-based firm, with conducting a market manipulation scheme to create the false appearance of a liquid and active market for AutoChina’s stock. Continue reading
Posted by Latha Do NADARAJAN , Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
5 years on, the Satyam Computers scam is back in the headlines with the Enforcement Directorate formally seeking prosecution of prime accused B Ramalinga Raju, his kin and 166 companies for money laundering through a web of inter-connected transactions and pledge of inflated shares. The Satyam fraud is being simultaneously investigated by several other agencies as well, including the Central Bureau of Investigation, the SFIO and the income-tax department. But in the interim, Ramalinga Raju its chief architect is roaming free, out on bail, having spent barely 2 years in jail as the investigations continue at a tardy pace. Continue reading
http://www.asiasentinel.com/econ-business/will-china-inc-fall-victim-accounting-fraud/
Posted by GOH Shuqi, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
Written By: Aaron Ken Lee
February 19, 2015
In 2013, Xiao Gang, the chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, conceded that civil, administrative, and criminal laws lack provisions that would allow securities regulation to actually function. The system, he said, lacks a judicial underpinning for sound capital markets. In the existing provisions of the law and their enforcement applications, even the most basic disclosure requirements essential to the healthy functioning of financial markets are absent. Continue reading
SFC action against CMR serves as test case for HK laws involving mainland China firms
Monday, 23 February, 2015, 8:37pm
Reuters
A victory for the regulator will set the scene for a tough battle by HK-appointed liquidators to secure China Metal Recycling’s mainland assets
The Securities and Futures Commission is set to take landmark legal action today against China Metal Recycling (Holdings) in a court case that will test laws to sanction mainland Chinese firms listed in the city. The securities regulator forced China Metal Recycling, which describes itself as the country’s biggest recycler of scrap metal, into provisional liquidation in July 2013, alleging it had found evidence of accounting fraud. The action was the first time the regulator used a special provision of the securities law, designed to protect investors, in the case of a listed firm. Today, the SFC will go before the High Court to wind up the company with the aim of recovering as much value as possible for shareholders and creditors.
“This is a critical test for the SFC,” said Michael Cheng, the Asian Corporate Governance Association’s research director for mainland China and Hong Kong. “What the SFC has to demonstrate is that regardless of where a company is incorporated, or where its assets are located, the regulator will go after it.” Continue reading
http://qz.com/51229/the-simplicity-of-chinese-accounting-scandals/
Posted by CHEN Liting, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University
Written by: Naomi Rovnick
February 6, 2013
In the wake of Caterpillar’s $580 million write-down of the value of a Chinese acquisition where it claimed to have discovered major accounting irregularities, Beijing-based accounting expert Paul Gillis has helpfully detailed several methods crooked Chinese companies commonly use to cook the books. Continue reading
AsianExtractor: Unearthing Accounting Fraud in Asia 