In brief

ACCOUNTING FIRM TARGETS MADOFF INVESTORSWestport, Conn.-Walter C. King Associates is offering tax recovery and forensic accounting services to investors who fell victim to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

"The magnitude of the Madoff scheme is of unprecedented size," said the firm. "Our objective is to assist our affected clients compile the necessary information so that tax and economic recovery considerations can be addressed. From a tax point of view, amended returns may be required to correct previously reported income or theft losses claimed."

Madoff has admitted to running a giant $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

AICPA ISSUES ECONOMIC CRISIS AUDIT RISK ALERT

New York-The American Institute of CPAs has released an alert warning about audit risks from the economic crisis.

The report, Current Economic Crisis: Accounting and Auditing Considerations 2009, focuses on legal and regulatory actions taken to curtail the crisis, along with the relevant accounting and auditing issues. The audit risk alert is designed to identify some significant risks that may result in a material misstatement of financial information, including fair value accounting, impairment issues, liquidity, fraud and going-concern considerations.

The report costs $39 for AICPA members, or $48.75 for non-members. For more, visit www.cpabiz.com/economy.

EXECS EXPECT MORE FRAUD

New York-Nearly two thirds of executives anticipate an increase in accounting fraud in the next two years, according to a recent poll by Deloitte.

The survey found that 63.3 percent of more than 1,280 executives from the banking and securities, financial services, and technology industries expect an uptick in accounting fraud.

To prepare, 45.7 percent of the respondents indicated that their organizations have established protocols for conducting investigations. Executives also reported more fraud awareness training throughout their organizations (38.7 percent), more robust fraud risk assessments (21.5 percent) and expansion of internal audit monitoring efforts (20.3 percent).

TARP BAILOUT COMPANIES REMAIN A BIG RISK

Los Angeles-The majority of banks and financial services companies bailed out by the Troubled Asset Relief Program are probably in worse condition than publicly disclosed, according to a new study.

Audit Integrity, an independent research firm that measures corporate integrity risk, said that more than 80 percent of TARP financial services companies have a "very aggressive" or "aggressive" accounting and governance risk rating based on their most recent regulatory filings, and, as a result, have a high statistical likelihood of restating their earnings and suffering from other adverse events. In contrast, two thirds of the more than 7,000 publicly traded North American companies rated by Audit Integrity have "average" or "conservative" ratings.

The analysis focused on the 25 financial services companies that have received more than 90 percent of TARP funds to date. Of the 14 financial services companies that received "very aggressive" ratings, 10 were among the recipients of the largest amounts of TARP money.

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