Accounting standards

The administrators of a Utah college savings plan have settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission for issuing false and misleading information, though the fund's former director will be charged with misappropriating funds.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's advisory committee on smaller public companies has published a series of questions to solicit public input from investors and companies on ways to improve the current regulatory system for smaller companies and to examine the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Tax information providers CCH and RIA both released comprehensive explanations and practical analyses of the tax provisions contained in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005.

Tax preparation giant H&R Block Inc. has said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it overstated net income for 2003 and 2004 by $91.1 million, due mostly to accounting errors.

California Republican Rep. Christopher Cox will serve as the new chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, after the Senate confirmed President Bush's pick alongside Democrats Roel Campos and Annette Nazareth, who will round out the five-member panel.

The board of the International Federation of Accountants has initiated a global study on how to enhance the quality of the financial reporting supply chain.

Big Four accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP and Reliant Energy Inc. will pay $75 million to settle shareholder class-action lawsuits that alleged that the electric company engaged in illegal trading to boost its stock value during the energy crisis of 2000 and 2001.

In a close vote along party lines, the Senate Banking Committee approved a bill to increase oversight of mortgage financing companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as reduce their combined $1.5 trillion investment portfolios by about $600 billion.

As expected, the Senate Banking Committee voted Thursday to recommend confirmation of President Bush's three nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A former executive at telecommunications company Qwest Communications International Inc. will pay $2.1 million to settle civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Casey allegedly backdated contracts allowing Qwest to immediately recognize revenue it would not receive until later.

Gerber Scientific Inc. announced Tuesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has ended an investigation into accounting irregularities at the maker of industrial manufacturing equipment.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board adopted new ethics and independence rules for auditors on Tuesday that place clear limits on the ability of accounting firms to offer tax services to their audit clients.

SLM Corp., the parent company of student loan lender Sallie Mae, said Monday that it had fired the subsidiary's chief financial officer and disciplined several other executives after finishing an internal accounting investigation.

Property and casualty insurance company Ace Ltd said last week that it will restate five years of financial results after an internal investigation into its reininsurance contracts.

Lawyers for former HealthSouth Corp. chief executive Richard Scrushy have filed a motion in U.S. District Court to dismiss the civil charges recently filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If corporate accountants got the chance to blow out the candles on the Sarbanes-Oxley birthday cake, they'd probably wish the birthday boy would go away.

Big Four firm Deloitte & Touche and international firm Grant Thornton lost their bid to dismiss a class-action suit brought against them by investors of now-bankrupt Italian dairy conglomerate Parmalat.A federal judge in New York recently ruled that the accounting umbrella organizations couldn't insulate themselves from the actions of local affiliates in Italy that audited the company before its collapse from financial mismanagement and fraud in 2003.

Internal auditors have always had a problem expressing an opinion - or rather, expressing an opinion that others take the right way, with a proper understanding of its scope and type and the criteria used to produce it.The issue has come to the forefront recently as more corporate officers and audit committees respond to the demands of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, especially Section 404, which requires officers to certify that their internal controls are sound and effective.

Barely a week after a federal jury found HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy not guilty of participating in a massive accounting fraud, the Securities and Exchange Commission was preparing civil charges against the former chief executive.

In a divisive 3-2 vote, the Securities and Exchange Commission amended and re-approved a proposed rule requiring the directors of mutual funds to be independent that had been ruled against by a federal court in a lawsuit a little more than a week before.