Audit & Accounting

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that securities lawyer Andrew N. Vollmer will serve as its deputy general counsel.Vollmer, 52, is a partner in the international law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, and has represented corporate clients in SEC investigations and proceedings. He currently serves as vice chair of the firm's Securities Department, and previously served as one of two partners managing the London office.

KPMG LLP announced that it has formed a U.S.-based India Tax Center of Excellence to assist and advise companies that have, or are planning, operations in India. The center will also provide tax services to India-based companies with investment interests in the United States.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have published the first draft chapters of a document laying out their views for an enhanced conceptual framework.

Yale University officials said that they have received three subpoenas as federal regulators have launched a probe into the Ivy League school's accounting practices surrounding its government research grants.According to published reports, Yale received the subpoenas from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. The subpoenas cover some 47 grants valued at roughly $45 million.

James Lockhart, director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, said that mortgage finance concerns Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should each be allowed to prop up the U.S. home mortgage market in periods of financial malaise.In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Lockhart said the companies, whose combined mortgage portfolio is roughly $1.4 trillion, creates a serious risk if they fail to control their interest-rate risks, but nevertheless both have a role for their portfolios, albeit on a smaller scale, to ensure monies available for home loans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the relationship between the former First Union Corp. and KPMG, according to published reports.

Lori Schock, the deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Investor Education, has been named the division's acting director.

The Board of the International Federation of Accountants has approved the reappointment of John Kellas as chairman of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.

Just over a year after his acquittal on charges of overseeing a $2.7 billion accounting fraud as the head of health care company HealthSouth Corp., Richard Scrushy was found guilty on charges of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has won the court battle over the first billion-dollar financial fraud it ever tackled, a case filed against the former chief financial officer of Waste Management Inc. back in March 2002.