Accounting standards

Initially, my column was only going to cover that a day after former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to 24 plus years, the SEC announced it settled civil fraud charges involving options backdating. The agreement provides for the payment of nearly $2.4 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest, a permanent injunction, a permanent officer-and-director bar, and suspension from appearing or practicing before the Commission as an accountant.The SEC had charged the former CFO of Comverse Technology, Inc., David Kreinberg and two other former Comverse executives with engaging over many years in a fraudulent scheme to grant undisclosed in-the-money options to themselves and to others by backdating stock option grants to coincide with historically low closing prices of Comverse common stock. The SEC also alleged that Kreinberg and Comverse's former chairman and CEO created a slush fund of backdated options that the former Chairman and CEO used to recruit and retain key personnel.

To assist governments and other public sector entities in appropriately accounting for the costs of employee benefits, a board within the International Federation of Accountants has issued an exposure draft of a new standard.The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board’s exposure draft No. 31, “Employee Benefits,” is based on the the International Accounting Standard No. 19, of the same name. The draft addresses the same categories of employee benefits -- short-term employee benefits, post-employment benefits, other long-term employee benefits and termination benefits.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has voted to propose changes to a derivatives rule issued earlier this year affecting the financial statements of asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities investors.The proposal would affect FASB Statement No. 155, “Accounting for Certain Hybrid Financial Instruments,” and allow companies not to account for embedded derivatives that are associated with prepayment risks. Community banks, insurance companies and others may be exempted from having to recognize interest-rate-driven gains and losses on their income statements. Many of those groups had said without such an exemption, their earnings might be more volatile.

In response to a senator’s inquiry, the Government Accountability Office will review the operations of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division and compliance department.

A federal panel is recommending changes to governmental accounting that would require the cost of future Social Security and Medicare payments to be accounted for year-by-year as workers accumulate entitlements.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled civil fraud charges against the former chief financial officer of Comverse Technology Inc., part of a case that is one of the agency’s first involving options backdating.

An International Federation of Accountants board has issued an exposure draft of a proposed standard, “Impairment of Cash-Generating Assets.”

Former U.S. Treasury secretary and Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers will join New York hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw & Co. as a part-time managing director."Larry is an enormously gifted economist and has made major contributions as a researcher, a public servant and an academic leader," David Shaw, chairman of the $25-billion fund manager, said in a statement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that thousands of individual investors who made financial claims in the wake of the $11 billion WorldCom accounting fraud will soon receive up to $150 million from an SEC fund set up to help compensate investors for their losses.

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission issued a request for proposals to develop guidance to help organizations monitor the quality of their internal control systems.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued staff questions and answers about auditing the value of stock options granted to employees.The guidance provides direction for auditing a company’s estimation of the fair value of stock options granted to employees under its revised statement on share-based payments, standard, No. 123. The standard became applicable for financial statements of companies with fiscal years ending on or after June 15, 2006.

The managing executive of the Crowe Chizek’s Commercial Services Group will become the chief executive of Crowe Group LLP in April.Charles “Chuck” Allen, 53, will succeed Mark L. Hildebrand, who is completing his second term as the head of the firm. Hildebrand was first named chief executive in 1999.

What’s becoming increasingly apparent as more and more companies reveal the results of internal investigations into the timing of stock options grants to executives, is that there’s really no cut and dry, right or wrong, when it comes to the practice.According to published reports and independent research groups, upwards of 130 publicly traded companies have announced that they are looking into their own options-granting practices -- and the actual number is surely much, much higher than that. But with many of those investigations wrapping up, what comes now?

The American Institute of CPAs has released a second exposure draft of a proposed statement on standards for valuation services.

Statistics show that more than 50 percent of marriages in the United States end in divorce.The process of a divorce can create tremendous animosity between the parties, and this can lead to difficult financial issues for those affected by the split. There are many complex federal tax issues that need to be planned for, or they will create tremendous pitfalls. The Internal Revenue Code also contains several provisions that provide specific guidance for divorce-related transactions.

Year-end tax planning opportunities abound this year. They do so not only because it has been a particularly active year for tax legislation, but also because of other significant tax developments taking place in 2006, as well as changes from pre-2006 tax legislation that have a particular impact this year and next.Traditional year-end tax strategies should not be abandoned. Income should either be accelerated or postponed between 2006 and 2007, depending upon the anticipated tax brackets for each client. Similarly, deductions and credits should be manipulated to lower income either in the more favorable year or, in some cases, in both years, before midnight, Dec. 31, 2006, has come and gone.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has set a new standard that establishes a long-needed framework on fair value measurement and expands related information in financial reports - and the investor community, according to FASB board member Leslie F. Seidman, is going to love it.Though Statement 157, Fair Value Measurements, does not require any new or additional fair value measurements, it applies to over 40 existing standards that require or permit the measurement of assets and liabilities at fair value.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's top accountant has added his thoughts on how to properly account for stock options in the historical financial statements of public companies.In a letter sent from his office, SEC Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt discusses the consequences offered under Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 25, Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees. The letter, sent to committee chairmen at Financial Executives International and the American Institute of CPAs, discusses dating an option award to predate the actual award date, option grants with administrative delays, the uncertainty as to the validity of prior grants, and other related circumstances.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will consider recommendations for changes to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act at an open meeting on Dec. 13.

Improving the accounting and disclosures for mergers and acquisitions by non-profit organizations is the aim of two exposure drafts released by the Financial Accounting Standards Board.