The Securities and Exchange Commission has accepted a settlement offer from an accounting executive at an energy company who falsely claimed to be a CPA.

The American Institute of CPAs gave John W. Dean, a partner at the accounting firm Heard, McElroy & Vestal, LLP, in Shreveport, La., its Public Service Award at its Spring Meeting of Council.

American Institute of CPAs president and CEO Barry Melancon derided the recent efforts of the Financial Accounting Standards Board to preserve its authority over private company accounting standards, saying, “Sometimes dynasties need to be broken.”

The American Institute of CPAs has given its Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award to Dale Flesher, a professor at the University of Mississippi.

The AICPA Council voted Monday to approve a joint venture with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants to create a new credential for management accountants internationally.

You can follow Accounting Today’s and Accounting Tomorrow’s coverage of the American Institute of CPAs Spring Meeting of Council conference in Washington, D.C. on our Twitter pages: @Accounting Today, @ATomorrow and @WebCPAtweets, with tweeting by editors Danielle Lee and Michael Cohn.

The American Institute of CPAs kicked off its 2011 Spring Meeting of Council on Sunday with a discussion of the Institute’s legislative priorities.

Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has written to White House officials questioning why big banks are benefiting from a Small Business Lending Fund that was supposed to be used to help finance small businesses.

The Financial Accounting Foundation said Wednesday that, as part of its oversight of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, it has commissioned an independent academic study of the purposes of financial accounting and reporting of state and local governments.

ParenteBeard LLC has launched a sustainability practice to work with clients on establishing sustainability initiatives at their organizations.

Not all of the state legislation drawing attention from accountants this year involves taxes (see States Enact Flurry of Tax Changes). Indeed, some of the most closely watched bills hit even closer to home for the profession.

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants is firing back as government regulators worldwide are proposing changes in the way the audit profession works.

Ez-XBRL Solutions, a global provider of XBRL data conversion services and analytics platforms, released on Tuesday an enhanced version of its Ez-XBRL Validator product, which provides a range of validations for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filers.

To mark Small Business Week, the Internal Revenue Service is highlighting the tax benefits and resources available to small businesses this year.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have published new requirements for fair value measurement and disclosure.

The American Institute of CPAs has promoted assistant general counsel Michael J. Buddendeck to the job of general counsel and secretary.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board appears to be once again on the slow path to convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards, but it will probably get there in the end.

The Securities and Exchange Commission provided information Tuesday on filing financial statements in Extensible Business Reporting Language for public companies that will soon be required to file in the XBRL format.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is still aiming to preserve its job as the standard-setter for private company accounting, while expanding its outreach and consultation with representatives of privately held businesses.

Financial Accounting Standards Board chair Leslie Seidman gave an overview of the work of the board as it tries to achieve its convergence goals with the International Accounting Standards Board, and said they were taking extra time to get the standards right and trying to simplify them to make them easier for accountants to apply.