http://www.wsj.com/articles/tailored-accounting-at-ipos-raises-flags-1420677431

Tailored Accounting at IPOs Raises Flags

Critics Say Companies’ Increased Use of Customized Earnings Measures Could Confuse Investors

MICHAEL RAPOPORT

Jan. 7, 2015 7:37 p.m. ET

Zoe’s Kitchen Inc. is serving up profits—but only after leaving some of its expenses off the menu.

Zoe’s, a chain of 125-plus Mediterranean-theme restaurants that went public in April, reported an adjusted profit of $13.2 million for the first nine months of 2014 under its own accounting treatments that strip out a variety of expenses. Including those expenses, as is required under standard accounting rules, Zoe’s reported a loss of $8.4 million. Continue reading →

Accounting Fraud Cases: Hongwei Technologies and China Hongxing Sports

Posted by Amy CHAN Wen Yi, final year undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

Amy: I was reading through the articles on “Detecting Accounting Fraud in Asia” (Part 1, Part 2) written by KB and noted the fact that companies owning high net cash in the balance sheet does not mean that they represent “must-buy” investments. Some examples would be China Hongxing Sports Ltd, Hongwei Technologies Ltd and China Gaoxian Fibrefab Holdings Ltd.

Continue reading →

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/accountants-need-to-be-strong-in-their-ethical-principles

Accountants need to be strong in their ethical principles

Kang Wai Geat and Ang Soon Lii

847 words

7 January 2015

Business Times Singapore

NEWS broke on Dec 12, 2014, that three former top executives of Singapore Technologies Marine (ST Marine) were charged in court for corruption and falsification of accounts. Among them is ST Marine’s former financial controller, a professional accountant, who was charged with making fictitious petty-cash claims amounting to over S$500,000 when there were none. It would be easy and convenient for accountants, dealt another blow by this debacle, to be generalised as being dishonest. Continue reading →

Reminiscence of an Asian accounting fraud case – Australia’s ABC Learning

Posted by Amy CHAN Wen Yi, final year undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-08-27/fast-eddy-leaves-abc-learning-investors-reeling/490536

http://www.smh.com.au/business/fiveyear-suspension-for-former-abc-learning-auditor-20120808-23uj8.html​

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/09/abcl-s30.html

‘Fast Eddy’ leaves ABC Learning investors reeling

Greg Hoy

Updated 28 Aug 2008, 10:26amThu 28 Aug 2008, 10:26am

Until six months ago, the world’s biggest child care operator, ABC Learning, looked like one of Australia’s great corporate success stories.

Looks can be deceiving, as ABC’s investors discovered the hard way. Continue reading →

http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2014/12/31/the-madoff-five-historys-greatest-fraud-yields-one-of-the-greatest-legal-slugfests-of-our-time/print/

Richard BeharContributor

BUSINESS 12/31/2014 @ 11:48PM 21,561 views

Madoff’s Little Helpers: An Epic Trial, Puzzling Sentences

At first blush, they seem like ordinary people who simply had the misfortune to work for a man responsible for the greatest fraud ever. But in a complex trial, prosecutors convinced jurors that these five were the ones who made the Ponzi scheme work, winning guilty verdicts on all 59 counts.

THE MADOFF FIVE: History’s Greatest Fraud Yields One Of The Greatest Legal Slugfests Of Our Time

“What?! For Annette? How the hell did that happen?! Oh my God, I can’t believe Annette got only six years. Don’t tell me it’s gonna be like two months for [co-defendants] Jerry and George. That pisses me off, I’m sorry. I thought she was more guilty than all of them. The prosecutors must have been devastated. It’s kind of like a slap in the face to everybody who worked so hard getting these guys convicted, and for the jury who had to listen to the evidence for nearly six months.”

— Juror Sheila Amato, on sentence imposed on Annette Bongiorno, a former top manager at Madoff Securities

“Richard, these five loyal and dedicated employees were following the instructions of their immediate supervisor. They were not SEC-registered brokers and therefore had no reason to believe that they were violating any SEC regulations. They were always led to believe that the trades and the client assets were effected and held in Europe, as was common in our industry for this type of transaction. I alone am responsible for any wrongdoing on their part and will always suffer for the pain I caused my clients, my employees and their families.”

— Bernard L. Madoff, to author Continue reading →

http://www.scmp.com/print/comment/insight-opinion/article/1673481/securities-and-futures-commission-has-spun-out-control

Securities and Futures Commission has spun out of control

Sunday, 04 January, 2015, 6:53am

Jake van der Kamp

A markets tribunal has overturned a request by Moody’s Investors Services for privacy in its appeal against a Securities and Futures Commission’s decision to fine the ratings agency HK$23 million.

SCMP Business, January 2

I just don’t understand these people at Moody’s. Here they were four years ago still facing awkward questions about whether they foresaw the 2008 financial crisis or were any better than the market itself in rating risk and they decided to come up with a new ratings tool.

They called it the “Red Flags” framework, a way of assessing fixed income risk in emerging markets. Red flags would be posted according to set rules for five critical areas in which corporate affairs could go wrong. Count the number of flags and you get a workable debt rating. Continue reading →

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/11304016/Directors-are-still-not-properly-policing-corporate-dangers.html

Directors are still not properly policing corporate dangers, study finds

Study of audit committees shows slow progress on monitoring accounts and risks

Tesco’s accounting issues have highlighted the role of directors in spotting problems Photo: Bloomberg News

By Marion Dakers, Financial Services Editor

8:15PM GMT 03 Jan 2015

Many company directors have struggled to get to grips with new rules that are supposed to help identify risks that firms could face, though some progress is being made, according to new research.

Despite high-profile examples of boards missing dangers, including accounting holes at the Co-operative and Tesco in the past two years, some companies’ audit committees are still producing “disappointingly sparse and generic” reports, the accounting firm BDO said. Continue reading →