Accounting fraud

Three former top executives of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP avoided potential prison terms after a Manhattan jury failed to agree on whether they lied to investors in the run-up to the largest law-firm bankruptcy in history.

Ernst & Young LLP took Bernie Madoff at his word when it signed off on audits of a fund that helped feed the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s 2007 standard on accounting for uncertainty in income taxes, FASB Interpretation No. 48, or FIN 48, has helped discourage companies from using tax reserves to manage their quarterly earnings reports, according to a new study.

Financial restatements can prompt similar companies to misstate their own earnings, according to a new study.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two former top executives at OCZ Technology Group Inc. for accounting failures at the now-bankrupt seller of computer memory storage and power supply devices.

Mike Lynch, the founder of U.K. software company Autonomy, accused Hewlett-Packard Co. of damaging his career with false statements in the fallout from the two companies’ $10-billion merger that has been marred by a massive writedown and allegations of accounting fraud.

Toshiba Corp. said it has identified 30 more executives involved in an accounting scandal that has already led to resignations of three former presidents and reduced reported profit by about $1.3 billion.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Trinity National Corp. and wholly owned subsidiary Los Alamos Bank, have agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle charges of accounting fraud.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed financial fraud charges against four former officers of SMF Energy Corp., a bankrupt Fort Lauderdale, Fla., fuel transport company.

Yigal M. Rechtman of Grassi & Co. recently concluded a fraud investigation involving a cash-skimming scheme. Here he shares his findings to help give tax professionals performing audits new perspective.