Regulatory actions and programs

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has published an exposure draft to rank generally accepted accounting principles.

Driven in part by costs associated with Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, Fortune 1000 firms have paid more than $3.6 billion for their 2004 audits, up from $2.2 billion in 2003, according to a report by accounting professors at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Shifts by the Internal Revenue Service from a focus on taxpayer service to enforcement, and of the management of the Business Systems Modernization program from contractors to staff entail risks, according to the Government Accountability Office.

As founding partner of Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, Melvyn I. Weiss is generally considered one of the country's premier class-action litigators, particularly in the areas of accounting and securities fraud.

Washington - The cost of compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley should drop significantly for some companies, according to a report commissioned by the Big Four firms.

Norwalk, Conn. Insurance and reinsurance have recently made headline news, and it has not been pretty.

As of this writing, bankruptcy reform legislation had passed the Senate and was expected to move quickly through the House and be signed by President Bush. The Bankruptcy Abuse and Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 may already be law as you read this column.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was supposed to help investors, not sink companies.

Washington - The Securities and Exchange Commission in early April named agency veteran Meyer Eisenberg to the post of acting director of the commission's Division of Investment Management.

Noting that the impact of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on companies, auditors and investors has been huge, one Big Four chief executive says that the changes "all are positive."

A committee established by the Securities and Exchange Commission to evaluate how the securities regulatory system affects smaller public companies is soliciting public comment on its proposed agenda.

The Financial Planning Association filed a petition in a District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals challenging a Securities and Exchange Commission rule exempting certain broker/dealers from the requirements of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

The Securities and Exchange Commission strongly objected to a statement by Big Four firm Deloitte & Touche regarding settlements the audit firm entered into with the commission to resolve charges related to two of Deloitte's former audit clients.

In an attempt to clear its ruined name, Arthur Andersen LLP made its plea to the Supreme Court Wednesday for a reversal of the firm's 2002 conviction for obstruction of justice in the Enron Corp. case.

KPMG's U.S. business has offered to publish annual accounts if lawmakers provide auditors with protection against potentially catastrophic negligence claims, according to a published report.

A district court judge here gave the okay to a settlement in which Arthur Andersen agreed to pay $65 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by WorldCom investors who alleged that the audit firm failed to protect them by not uncovering the $11 billion fraud at the telecommunications company.

Deloitte & Touche LLP agreed to pay more than $50 million to settle charges brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to two of its former audit clients.

The Government Accountability Office has issued extensive new guidance for auditors and audit organizations in implementing revised continuing professional education requirements for those conducting so-called "Yellow Book" audits.

The chief financial officer of a popular steakhouse chain has called it quits, citing the negative regulatory environment, including what he referred to as "lunacy over lease accounting."

BearingPoint, the consultancy formerly tied to accounting firm KPMG, disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal probe into the company's accounting practices.