Audit & Accounting

Software developer Paisley has announced an updated version of its governance, risk and compliance software, Paisley Enterprise GRC.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released a report on the issues it has identified from inspections of U.S. firms that audit 100 or fewer public companies.

Because of the thousands upon thousands of press releases that I have seen, very few impress or take me by surprise. But the one at www.healthsouth.com/who_we_are/press_releases.asp did just that. In the release, HealthSouth Corporation announced that it has received a $440 million tax recovery from the IRS “for overstatements of taxable income attributable to financial fraud perpetrated by members of prior management.” This recovery includes a $296 million tax refund for the tax years 1996 through 1999, and $144 million of associated interest income.

BIOFUEL ENGAGES GRANT THORNTONBioFuel Energy Corp., a Denver-based producer of ethanol, has named Grant Thornton as its new independent accountant.

Regular readers know that we often challenge financial reporting participants to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."This ancient oath covers all the bases by binding witnesses to tell what they know to be true, not diminished by leaving something out and not augmented by adding something extraneous. One or even two out of three simply isn't good enough.

SEC OKS RULE ON DEFERRED VARIABLE ANNUITIESThe Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a rule from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that would crack down on abusive sales of deferred variable annuities, particularly to senior citizens.

Dietary supplement developer Mannatech has fired Grant Thornton as its auditor and appointed BDO Seidman in its place after a dispute over the company's chairman.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has several significant deficiencies with its auditing, according to an inspection report issued by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

1987: A TOUGH ENTRANCEIt was not, perhaps, the best of times for the accounting profession: Scandals, including the implosion that summer of the brazenly fraudulent ZZZZ Best, had tarnished auditors' reputations, malpractice insurance rates were soaring, college students were staying away in droves, and the Federal Trade Commission claimed that the American Institute of CPAs' rules on professional activities violated restraint-of-trade rules.

Investors harmed by financial shenanigans at mortgage lender Fannie Mae will collectively receive a whopping payout of $356 million, thanks to the Securities and Exchange Commission.