Accounting standards

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges of accounting violations by two former executives at First American Health Concepts Inc., a marketer of vision care plans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has told Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. that it will likely recommend enforcement action for accounting errors originally disclosed two years ago.

The Uniform Accountancy Act committees of the American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy issued an exposure draft of updated rules governing the profession.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's annual Small Business Capital Formation Forum will be held in conjunction with a meeting of the commission's advisory committee on smaller public companies, Sept. 19 and 20 in San Francisco.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a revised exposure draft, titled, "Accounting for Transfers of Financial Assets."

An independent committee has finished its report into accounting practices at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., and the country's second-largest doughnut chain has announced plans to reduce past income statements by more than $25 million.

WorldCom's former director of accounting Buford "Buddy" Yates and controller David Myers were each sentenced to a year and a day in prison on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, for their roles in the company's $11 billion accounting fraud.

United Rentals Inc. will hold off on finalizing its recent earnings statements until it finishes an accounting inquiry and restates more than three years of results.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has broadened its four-month-old voluntary Extensible Business Reporting Language filing program to allow mutual funds to file exhibits to their annual report to shareholders and quarterly statements of portfolio holdings using XBRL.

Sandra Harris, who co-headed the Securities and Exchange Commission's Pacific Regional Office for more than 10 years, said that she will leave the regulator for a post in the private sector, though she has yet to announce the specifics of the new job.

Over the last month, at least a handful of lengthy feature stories have come my way about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts -- but the same can't be said about coverage of President Bush's other summertime nominee, Christopher Cox, who was sworn in as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 3.

Troubled mortgage-financing company Fannie Mae said its previously announced financials restatement will probably be completed by the second half of 2006, according to a federal filing.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said the government inquiries into accounting at its insurance units are part of an investigation that began in January, and not a new probe.

The Governmental Accounting Standard Board recently published a guide to its statements 43 and 45, both which address post-employment benefits besides pensions.

A sixteenth former Enron executive has pleaded guilty in the Justice Department's investigation into the energy giant's bankruptcy.

California Rep. Christopher Cox, President Bush's nominee for chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, disclosed his stock, mutual fund and other assets in early July, the value of which could range from $2.7 million to $5.9 million.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have issued an exposure draft of a proposed new standard on business combinations. If approved, the standard should help facilitate global consistency in accounting for transnational mergers and acquisitions.

In a memo to federal regulators, lawyers for American International Group Inc.'s former chief executive outlined a case that the company's $3.9 billion earnings restatement was unnecessary and that any blame lay with its auditor of the past two decades, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Time Warner Inc. will set aside $3 billion in reserves for shareholder lawsuits over the AOL merger, and in a separate announcement, plaintiff lawyers said that accounting firm Ernst & Young, the company's auditor, has agreed to contribute another $100 million.

The former vice chairman of Cendant Corp. was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $3.27 billion to the hotel franchise and travel company for his role in an accounting scandal at Cendant's predecessor, CUC International.