Audit & Accounting

WorldCom's former director of accounting Buford "Buddy" Yates and controller David Myers were each sentenced to a year and a day in prison on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, for their roles in the company's $11 billion accounting fraud.

United Rentals Inc. will hold off on finalizing its recent earnings statements until it finishes an accounting inquiry and restates more than three years of results.

Convergys Corp., a provider of customer care, human resources and billing services, completed its acquisition of the finance and accounting business process outsourcing line of Deloitte Consulting Outsourcing LLC, a subsidiary of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has broadened its four-month-old voluntary Extensible Business Reporting Language filing program to allow mutual funds to file exhibits to their annual report to shareholders and quarterly statements of portfolio holdings using XBRL.

Sandra Harris, who co-headed the Securities and Exchange Commission's Pacific Regional Office for more than 10 years, said that she will leave the regulator for a post in the private sector, though she has yet to announce the specifics of the new job.

Over the last month, at least a handful of lengthy feature stories have come my way about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts -- but the same can't be said about coverage of President Bush's other summertime nominee, Christopher Cox, who was sworn in as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 3.

Troubled mortgage-financing company Fannie Mae said its previously announced financials restatement will probably be completed by the second half of 2006, according to a federal filing.

Auto-parts manufacturer Visteon Corp. expects to report a loss of $1.2 billion in its second quarter after reducing the value of assets it will transfer to Ford Motor Co.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said the government inquiries into accounting at its insurance units are part of an investigation that began in January, and not a new probe.

The Governmental Accounting Standard Board recently published a guide to its statements 43 and 45, both which address post-employment benefits besides pensions.