Audit & Accounting

Deloitte & Touche LLP agreed to pay more than $50 million to settle charges brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to two of its former audit clients.

Arthur Andersen LLP, the last remaining defendant in an investor lawsuit stemming from WorldCom Inc.'s 2002 collapse, agreed to settle its liability in the case for an undisclosed sum, putting an end to the largest securities fraud class action in U.S. history.

The Government Accountability Office has issued extensive new guidance for auditors and audit organizations in implementing revised continuing professional education requirements for those conducting so-called "Yellow Book" audits.

The chief financial officer of a popular steakhouse chain has called it quits, citing the negative regulatory environment, including what he referred to as "lunacy over lease accounting."

BearingPoint, the consultancy formerly tied to accounting firm KPMG, disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal probe into the company's accounting practices.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of the Chief Accountant has selected two professional accounting fellows for two-year terms beginning in June 2005.

Despite dire predictions by critics of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that the accounting reform law would freeze smaller CPA firms out of the audit business, just the opposite appears to be happening, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chairman William J. McDonough told Congress.

Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the European Union Commission have reached an agreement on a "roadmap" toward equivalence between international and U.S. accounting rules.

The Government Accountability Office's quality assurance system has received a clean audit opinion from an international peer review team.

The New York State Society of CPAs has launched "CPAs on Boards," a state-wide program that links CPAs with nonprofit organizations looking for financial experts to add to their boards of directors.