Audit & Accounting

Members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted Wednesday to give public companies another six months to implement the board's proposed standard for expensing employee stock options.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against Dutch grocer Royal Ahold and three of its former executives in connection with an accounting scandal involving the overstatement of hundreds of millions of dollars of earnings.

Business Transitions LLC, a provider of online buy/sell forums for CPA and financial services practices, has added a new service to its financial services practice succession planning Web sites aimed at sole practitioners.

The International Accounting Standards Board and the Accounting Standards Board of Japan announced that they have started talks about a joint project to minimize differences between international financial reporting standards and Japanese accounting standards.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has released a proposed bulletin that seeks to clarify accounting requirements for employers' contributions to pension and other post-employment benefit plans.

KPMG LLP has named Bruce Pfau vice chair of human resources.

Consumer favorite Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. said that the ongoing probe into its accounting practices by the Securities and Exchange Commission has become a formal investigation.

Big Four firm KPMG and its Belgian unit agreed to pay $115 million to settle a class-action shareholder lawsuit that alleged that the firm's audits of Belgium-based Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV violated generally accepted accounting and auditing principles.

Former partners of PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young have joined with executives from Hewlett-Packard and Lucent to form a new consulting company that will focus on helping mid-market companies improve outsourcing effectiveness.

The Department of Justice charged eight former executives of software maker Peregrine Systems Inc., the company's former outside auditor and two of its outside business partners with conspiracy to commit a multi-billion dollar securities fraud.