Audit

PricewaterhouseCoopers plans to fight a $120 million jury award to creditors of defunct Ambassador Insurance Co.

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.

The Financial Reporting Review Panel, one of Britain's audit watchdogs, released its first report into the United Kingdom's accounting principles, saying it found "no evidence of systemic weakness."

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.

Federal prosecutors have notified as many as 20 former partners at Big Four firm KPMG LLP that they may face criminal charges for selling illegal tax shelters.

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.

Software manufacturer Computer Associates International Inc. has hired Marc Loupé, formerly a vice president of finance with Sun Microsystems, as a senior vice president and internal audit head.

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.

Tax preparation giant H&R Block Inc. will acquire the Tax & Business Services division of American Express, creating a combined firm with more than 5,000 employees and generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

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.

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.

Italian dairy giant Parmalat Finanziaria SpA, which has operations around the world, said Tuesday that its earnings before taxes rose by more than a third in the first half of 2005 as the organization raised profitability at all its units.

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

New York officials have reached a settlement with the final trio of former WorldCom executives named in a shareholder lawsuit.

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.

Risk consulting and internal audit services provider Protiviti Inc. acquired Philadelphia-based Lender Advisory Services, a unit of national CPA firm RSM McGladrey.

Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has named Rob Ward to head its global assurance practice - the company's largest line of service. Ward had previously served as deputy global assurance leader and will succeed Gerald Ward (no relation), who is retiring after more than 30 years of service.

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.

President Bush nominated Roel Campos and Annette Nazareth as members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the White House said in a statement Friday.