Obama '08?

Okay, we've got it! Those who create businesses are "unholy", and the chains that are more competetive deserve disdain.

What else could we need to know?

Accounting scandals



Notable accounting scandals
Company↓ Year↓ Audit Firm↓ Country↓ Notes↓
Nugan Hand Bank 1980[1] Australia
ZZZZ Best 1986[2] United States Ponzi scheme run by Barry Minkow
Barlow Clowes 1988[3] United Kingdom Gilts management service. £110 million missing
MiniScribe 1989[4] United States
Polly Peck 1990[5] United Kingdom
Bank of Credit and Commerce International 1991[6] United Kingdom
Northern Rock United Kingdom
Clearstream Luxembourg
Phar-Mor 1992[7] United States
Informix 1996[8] United States
Cendant 1998[9] Ernst & Young United States
Waste Management, Inc. 1999[10] Arthur Andersen United States Financial mistatements
MicroStrategy 2000[11] PricewaterhouseCoopers United States Michael Saylor
Unify Corporation 2000[12] United States
Computer Associates 2000[13] KPMG United States Sanjay Kumar
Xerox 2000[14] KPMG United States Falsifying financial results
One.Tel 2001[15] Ernst & Young Australia
Enron 2001[16] Arthur Andersen United States Jeffrey Skilling, Kenneth Lay, Andrew Fastow
Adelphia 2002[17] Deloitte & Touche United States John Rigas
AOL 2002[14] Ernst & Young United States Inflated sales
Bristol-Myers Squibb 2002[14][18] PricewaterhouseCoopers United States Inflated revenues
CMS Energy 2002[14][19] Arthur Andersen United States Round trip trades
Duke Energy 2002[14] Deloitte & Touche United States Round trip trades
Dynegy 2002[14] Arthur Andersen United States Round trip trades
El Paso Corporation 2002[14] Deloitte & Touche United States Round trip trades
Freddie Mac 2002[20] United States Understated earnings
Global Crossing 2002[14] Arthur Andersen Bermuda Network capacity swaps to inflate revenues
Halliburton 2002[14] Arthur Andersen United States Improper booking of cost overruns
Homestore.com 2002[14][21] United States Improper booking of sales
ImClone Systems 2002[22] KPMG United States Samuel D. Waksal
Kmart 2002[14][23] PricewaterhouseCoopers United States Misleading accounting practices
Merck & Co. 2002[14] United States Recorded co-payments that were not collected
Merrill Lynch 2002[24] Deloitte & Touche United States Conflict of interest
Mirant 2002[14] United States Overstated assets and liabilities
Nicor 2002[14] United States Overstated assets, understated liabilities
Peregrine Systems 2002[14] KPMG United States Overstated sales
Qwest Communications 2002[14] United States Inflated revenues
Reliant Energy 2002[14] Deloitte & Touche United States Round trip trades
Sunbeam 2002[25] United States
Tyco International 2002[14] PricewaterhouseCoopers Bermuda Improper accounting, Dennis Kozlowski
WorldCom 2002[14] Arthur Andersen United States Overstated cash flows, Bernard Ebbers
Royal Ahold 2003[26] Deloitte & Touche Netherlands Inflating promotional allowances
Parmalat 2003[27][28] Grant Thornton SpA Italy Falsified accounting documents, Calisto Tanzi
HealthSouth Corporation 2003[29] Ernst & Young United States Richard M. Scrushy
Chiquita Brands International 2004[30] United States Illegal payments
AIG 2004[31] PricewaterhouseCoopers United States Accounting of structured financial deals
Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC 2008[32] Friehling & Horowitz United States Ponzi scheme.[33]
Anglo Irish Bank 2008[34] Ernst & Young Ireland Anglo Irish Bank hidden loans controversy
Satyam Computer Services 2009[35] PricewaterhouseCoopers India Falsified accounts
Lernout & Hauspie Belgium
Lehman Brothers 2010[36] Ernst & Young United States Failure to disclose Repo 105 transactions to investors

List of corporate scandals

* 2006 HP Spying Scandal[1]
* 2008 Siemens Scandal, involving cases of bribery on behalf of Siemens towards the Greek Government
* American Airlines, deferred maintenance of aircraft
* Adelphia officers trial and prison sentence[2][3][4]
* AOL Time Warner[4]
* Arthur Andersen[4]
* BAE Systems bribery scandal related to the Al Yamamah contracts with Saudi Arabia.
* Bank of Credit and Commerce International scandal
* Barings Bank, derivatives trading scandal
* Bayer, links to Josef Mengele's Auschwitz human experiments, HIV-tainted blood products, anti-Semitism, racism
* Bre-X gold mining and stock scandal
* Bristol-Myers Squibb accounting scandal[4]
* Clearstream, which has been qualified as "the greatest financial scandal in Luxembourg" (Clearstream is a clearing house, i.e. sort of a "bank of banks", used to centralize credit & debit between banks and other financial organizations). As of 2006, it hasn't been resolved yet.
* Chiquita Brands International Financing terrorist organizations
* CMS Energy[4]
* Compass Group, bribed the United Nations in order to win business.
* Corrib gas controversy Kilcommon, Erris, Co. Mayo, Ireland.
* Deutsche Bank, spying scandal
* Duke Energy[4]
* Dynegy[4]
* El Paso Corp.[4]
* Enron accounting fraud, involving Arthur Andersen[2][3][4]
* Exxon overreporting of oil reserves
* Fannie Mae underreporting of profit
* Firestone Tire and Rubber Company for use of child labor
* FlowTex, the largest corporate scandal in German history
* Ford Pinto scandal
* Global Crossing[4]
* Guinness affair
* Hafskip's collapse
* Halliburton[3][4] overcharging government contracts
* Harken Energy Scandal[3]
* HealthSouth reporting exaggerated earnings
* Homestore.com[4]
* IG Farben, participation in the Holocaust
* Kerr-McGee, the Karen Silkwood case
* Kinney National Company financial scandal
* Kmart[4]
* Krupp, participation in arming Nazi Germany and in the Holocaust
* Lernout & Hauspie accounting fraud
* Lockheed bribery scandal in Germany, Japan, and Netherlands
* Merck Medicaid fraud investigation[4]
* MG Rover Group accounts and pensions scandal
* Mirant[4]
* Morrison-Knudsen scandal. Led to William Agee's ouster
* Nicor Energy[4]
* Nortel executives overstate post-dot-com recovery earnings in order to earn bonuses[2]
* One.Tel collapse
* Options backdating involving over 100 companies
* Parmalat[3] accounting scandal & mutual fund fraud
* Peregrine Systems[3][4] corporate executives convicted of accounting fraud
* Phar-Mor[3] company lied to shareholders. CEO eventually sentenced to prison for fraud and company eventually became bankrupt.
* Qwest Communications[4]
* RadioShack CEO David Edmondson lied about attaining a B.A. degree from Pacific Coast Baptist College in California
* Refco, Inc. commodities & futures scandal involving hidden debts involving underwritting firms Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Corp.
* Reliant Energy[4]
* Rite Aid[3] accounting fraud
* Royal Dutch Shell overstated its oil reserves twice, it downgraded 3.9 billion barrels, or about 20 percent of its total holdings.
* Salad oil scandal, where millions in loans were obtained on largely nonexistent inventories of salad oil
* Société Générale, derivatives trading scandal causing multi-billion euro losses.
* Southwest Airlines, violations of safety regulations.
* Tyco Internationalexecutive theft and prison sentence[3][4]
* Union Carbide, the Bhopal disaster.
* ValuJet Airlines, loading live oxygen generators into cargo hold of passenger jet causing fatal crash
* WorldCom / MCI accounting scandals[2][3][4]
* Xerox[3][4] alleged accounting irregularities involving auditor KPMG, causing restatement of financial results for the years 1997 through 2000 and fines for both companies.[2]
* David Wittig "looting" scandals
* Northern Rock bank - subprime mortgage crisis and nationalisation, United Kingdom
* Satyam Computers, India
* S-Chips Scandals, Singapore

[edit] Mutual funds

* Epicurum fund/Parmalat
* Mutual-fund scandal (2003)

[edit] Insurance

* AIG[3]
* Marsh & Mclennan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals

I know about accounting scandals; Anderson-Cooper went bankrupt from their involvement with Enron. Many professional audits performed at big companies are often found to lack the proper analysis and investigation of the numbers presented to them. The AICPA has established audit guidelines, but they lack the proper investigative tools to find fraud. When I did audits, I always followed up on the biggest numbers whether it was income, accounts receivable, or expenses, did much more than the audit guidelines. I also looked at the small numbers to look for irregularities such as frequent payments to one company. I also wanted to see who were authorized to approve and sign checks for the company.

Many big audit firms get into trouble, because they create an atmosphere of trust between the company personnel and auditors, and auditors go through the "mechanics" of audits without getting nosey enough.

Most people working in auditing do not belong there; a good case in point are the IRS auditors. They can't read or understand graphs, arrows, and circled numbers to show where they have made mistakes.

It's frustrating. When I did consulting work, our tax returns were audited often by the IRS. It took me days and repeated explanations to clear things up with them. On one tax return, they doubled up a stock sale I made, and demanded more taxes and interest. That took me several months to clear up.

It's not only accountants who are unskilled; you find them in every profession - licensed or not.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

You just lost all of the tremendous amount of respect I had for you.

I said that I would never -- despite repeated requests from my co-workers -- apply for the manager's job because I do not think it is appropriate for someone with a college education to take a job meant for someone with a high school diploma . . . that this is job that someone should learn hands-on.

I also said that is disrespectful toward those who are high school grads to not to be given a chance to manage because they were better managers.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

I do not believe in robbing others, so I would never take such a job.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

What the **** is Williams-Sonoma if not high end? I also said that the big chains were worse places to work than the single proprietor stores.

I also said that I loved working for the woman who ran the pottery-emphasizing gift shop who is a high school graduate that I maintain contact with after three years and still arrange social outings with.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Why shouldn't a retail clerk recognize when a display looks like crap? Why shouldn't a retail clerk recognize when a store is refusing to sell something people want ($1.00 plastic cork pullers that are almost single use)? Why shouldn't a retail clerk know how a store can increase its profits.

A co-worker, who at 32 is kicking himself for not having gone to college (I told him he isn't dead yet) tells me things the store could do to increase profits and its market share. They are things that I know as a consumer.


Look, the management subscribes to satellite radio and ends up playing either soft jazz or top 40 stuff from the 70s and 80s. This is a college town with a national reputation as a music hub. The staff has told the management that the customers hate the music, we hate the music, most liquor stores do not have sound tracks. They refuse to listen. How can people with such horrid taste in music make decisions that are the right ones for their customers?

My son probably has a higher IQ than I do and I have a graduate degree from Harvard. So, why shouldn't I listen to him?

Besides, the folks who ran the panel on health care with Rep. Conyers in tow agreed with his statement and they included some people from the medical profession and the media as well as people from Congress.

Bottom feeder

Until the early 70s in Michigan, a CPA just might have been a high school graduate who took a job as a bank teller who later went to work as the assistant of a CPA who finally took the CPA exam. Didn't hear of scandals back then, did you?

Yes, they occurred back then at about the same rate they occur now.

Neither of thse statements is either credible on its own or convincing proof that health care insurer's profits are what you claimed. 75% of what ????

GET READY FOR THE RATE INCREASES!

BUT WHAT ABOUT OBAMACARE?

georgeob, I agree with you 100%. What relevance pom believes by having earned a graduate degree from Harvard holds no credibility on topics outside their "learned" courses. It seem pom loves to make generalities out of her own experience and perceptions that are most often erroneous.

If indeed it is a truthful statement about her own experience. Something I doubt.

Im glad you pointed that out. When I point that out to her, I am either a bully or am misquoting her.

Another example of right wing think tanks with nonsense.

The income from insurance come from the clients and the claimants statistically low so they have to hide their income by investing in other low performance companies. e.g. The Oakland A's were owned by Charlie Finley who owned an insurance company. The baseball players are paid multi-million dollar contracts and the revenue don't match the payout to players. Charlie Finley made lots of money from the insurance company. Baseball was his love but I doubt he made a fortune from baseball other than the stars.

talk, Did Finley sell health insurance? There's an interesting article on health insurance in the current issue of Consumer Reports. They have rankings from the National Committee of Quality Assurance (NCQA) of private health plans by state: In California where it shows 9 private insurance companies, Kaiser has the highest rankings for Prevention and Treatment, but "worse than average" for Consumer Satisfaction. It's the same in Colorado and Hawaii where Kaiser gets "better than average" grades for Prevention and Treatment, but "worst than average in Colorado," and "average" in Hawaii. Out of the big insurers, it looks like Cigna gets better ratings than Aetna in most states.

It seems to me like private insurance is working well; as it should be. Consumers have choices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Finley

You may think that but you tend to contrarian.

Frankly, at the time he told me about the payout rate of life insurance companies, I could have cared less, so why would I have jousted with him. Besides, when you know a kid has worked on something for an extended period, I tend to feel he discovered facts and statistics about which I know nothing.

As I said, when I went to the health care discussion with a panel of journalists, medical professionals and government officials, they made a conservative estimate that the profit rate of health insurance companies was about 75%.

It really sucks when others have to read what you post. "Worshipped as 'sort of a God?'" Hilarious.