Audit

The International Accounting Standards Board has announced the membership of a new Employee Benefits Working Group.The board established the group to assist in a project on post-employment benefits by providing a variety of exert perspectives, including those of actuaries, auditors, preparers and users of financial statements, and regulators. The group consists of 16 senior professionals with extensive practical experience in the operation, management, valuation, financial reporting, auditing or regulation of a variety of post-employment benefit arrangements.

Blue & Co. LLC will acquire a 20-person accounting firm based in Columbus, Ohio.Blue’s deal to acquire Sheridan Barton Vasko & Co., which will operate under the Blue & Co. name, is expected to be completed June 1. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.

If you’re like most Americans, debt is a way of life, says Jason Rich. So what separates the rich from the poor? He claims that the wealthy use debt to improve their financial situation -- something he calls “Smart Debt” -- and the poor use debt for instant gratification by which they just keep getting deeper in the hole.Rich is a bestselling author with some 30 books to his credit, including the Wall Street Journal bestseller, "The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Business Online," and, "Job Hunting for the Utterly Confused." He has a new book on the market called "Smart Debt" (Entrepreneur Press), that offers strategies to avoid wasting money on fees and interests as a result of credit cards.

In a filing with regulators, General Motors said that ineffective internal controls over financial reporting might make it difficult for the company to execute on its business plan.

The Institute for Fraud Prevention has released a study saying that most financial statement fraud is orchestrated by an organization’s chief executive, who is usually aided by outsiders in the overriding of internal controls.

Federal prosecutors have arrested a New York-based Internal Revenue Service agent on tax fraud charges, according to a published report.Harry Willner, 59, who has been an IRS agent for more than three decades, was charged with five counts of tax fraud on Monday. Federal prosecutors have accused him of cheating on his personal income taxes, as well as offering loopholes to other taxpayers.

Many of the same recommendations keep emerging from report after report -- no matter how nonpartisan or partisan the group.That happened just this week, on some level, with macro comments Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made in opening a conference on international market competition, as well as with the six pointed recommendations the U.S. Chamber of Commerce offered to Congress and the investment community.

Russian authorities raided the offices of PwC's Russian unit, ZAO PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit, last Friday, in search of new criminal evidence to be used against the firm, which the government suspects of tax evasion, and against bankrupted oil giant OAO Yukos, whose senior executives the government suspects of accounting fraud.

A federal judge has signed off on a $72.5 million settlement between Arthur Andersen and investors who sued the former accounting giant over its role in the financial collapse of former energy giant Enron Corp.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce had offered up a number of recommendations for changes to the country’s legal and regulatory framework -- taking aim at Securities and Exchange Commission and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the process.

The Institute of Internal Auditors has hired Luc Lavoie to serve as executive director of its newly established Canadian office.

There is no question that most people appear quite serious about preparing an estate plan that can get passed along to future generations. The intention is all there but too many people still seem to find ways to mess it up entirely.

After two years of compliance with the internal control provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, proxy researcher Glass Lewis & Co. says that public companies are reporting fewer material weaknesses in their internal controls.

The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee announced its inaugural members on Tuesday.

The heads of the major accounting regulators in the United States and the European Union agree that they are on the same page in heading towards convergence of standards.

J.H. Cohn LLP has announced firm revenues of $175.2 million for its 2007 fiscal year, up 22 percent from the same period a year ago.

In a new report, proxy researcher Glass Lewis & Co. said that U.S.-listed companies filed 1,538 financial restatements in 2006, up 13 percent from what had been a record number in 2005.

I believe there are two keys to success, whether a sole practitioner or a regional firm. They are simple when you say them, but that simplicity can be deceiving. The two are providing quality service, and establishing a reputation for doing so and continuing to do so.

A $170-million malpractice suit against BDO Seidman has been sent back to square one, after a Miami judge declared a mistrial.

The Internal Revenue Service completed a round of staff cuts in recent weeks, letting go nearly 100 employees from the division that oversees gift- and estate-tax returns, according to published reports.