Regulatory actions and programs

The Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended EFP Rotenberg LLP and an accountant at the firm for failing to detect fraud in the audit of a public company client, ContinuityX Solutions.

James Schnurr, the chief accountant in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Chief Accountant, has been seriously injured in a bicycling accident, and the SEC named deputy chief accountant Wesley R. Bricker as interim chief accountant while Schnurr recuperates.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted Wednesday to get rid of redundant and outmoded disclosures in response to recent changes in U.S. and international accounting standards and technology.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted Monday to propose amendments that would expand the threshold for businesses to qualify as a “smaller reporting company.”

South Korea is considering a bill that would allow regulators to oust the CEO of an accounting firm that is found to be negligent in controlling audit quality.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday it will allow companies to voluntarily file structured financial statement data in a format known as Inline XBRL.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred a former corporate vice president and a former controller for false accounting at an electronics company.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed long-awaited rulemaking last week to protect consumers from falling into the trap of ever-spiraling debt for taking out a short-term “payday loan.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved rules from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to improve audit transparency by disclosing the names of audit engagement partners, along with information about other firms that participate in the audits.

Now that public companies are required to use Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, in their financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC is trying to make sure the data is appropriate and not hiding accounting gimmicks.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is considering changes in its approach to audit firm inspections and enforcement, according to PCAOB board member Jeanette Franzel.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court held in Lawson v. FMR that employees of contractors of public companies, including employees of accounting and audit firms, are protected under the whistleblower protection provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to settle charges with a Maryland firm and one of its partners that their surprise examinations of an investment advisor were inadequate.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced penalties in two financial fraud cases Tuesday against companies and their former executives accused of various accounting failures that left investors without accurate depictions of company finances.

Approximately two-thirds of companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average reported non-GAAP earnings per share, according to a study last year, and the Securities and Exchange Commission is beginning to wonder if the trend has gone too far.

Toshiba Corp. is under investigation by the U.S. over allegations that it hid $1.3 billion in losses at its nuclear power operations, according to two people familiar with the matter. Shares plunged in Tokyo.

Mergers and acquisitions are prompting companies to take risky accounting maneuvers, warns a new report from Deloitte.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged California’s largest agricultural water district Wednesday with misleading investors about its financial condition as it issued a $77 million bond offering, with one of its managers bragging about using “a little Enron accounting.”

It’s generally accepted that a lot of accounting isn’t, well, generally accepted.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Marrone Bio Innovations, a pesticide company, and its former chief operating officer, with inflating financial results to meet projections it would double revenues in its first year as a public company.