accounting

UK accounting watchdog fines PwC over Galliford Try, Kier audit failures

Reuters0

LONDON – The Financial Reporting Council has fined accounting firm PwC around 5 million pounds ($6.22 million) as part of a package of sanctions following an investigation into audit failures at construction firms Kier and Galliford Try. The FRC, Britain’s accounting watchdog, said PwC and audit partner Jonathan Hook had failed in a number of relevant requirements, including identifying and correcting errors in Kier’s income and cash flow statements relating to the presentation of gains on corporate sales completed in 2017. The error led to the misstatement of the 2017 financial statements. PWC was fined 3.35 million pounds, adjusted foraggravating

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Drexel University Accounting Professor Arrested for Tax Evasion, Filing False Returns

Charlie Dwyer0

TRENTON, N.J. – Princeton Junction resident Gordian A. Ndubizu, 67 has been arrested and charged by the Department of Justice for tax evasion and filing false tax returns. Ndubizu, according to the DOJ is an accounting professor at Drexel University. The Department of Justice alleges Nbudizu failed to report $3.3 million in income, resulting in $1.3 million in tax evasion. Ndubizu was charged in an eight-count indictment unsealed today with four counts of tax evasion and four counts of filing false tax returns in tax years 2014 through 2017. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance by videoconference this

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Mercer County Accounting Professor Charged with Tax Evasion and Filing False Tax Returns

DOJ Press0

TRENTON, N.J. – A Mercer County, New Jersey, man was arrested today for tax evasion and filing false tax returns, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced. Gordian A. Ndubizu, 67, of Princeton Junction, New Jersey, is charged in an eight-count indictment unsealed today with four counts of tax evasion and four counts of filing false tax returns in tax years 2014 through 2017. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance by videoconference this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne J. Bongiovanni. According to documents filed in this case: During tax years 2014 through 2017, Ndubizu was a professor of

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Explainer-Shanghai death numbers raise questions over its COVID accounting

Reuters0

By David Stanway SHANGHAI – China’s biggest COVID-19 outbreak, in Shanghai, has again raised questions about the country’s official data – especially a death rate that despite a recent jump, remains far lower than elsewhere. HOW LOW IS THE DEATH RATE? Shanghai had reported no COVID-19 deaths for more than a month after the current outbreak began in early March. But deaths suddenly started to creep up over the past 11 days. The city of 25 million people has now reported 285 COVID-related fatalities since April 17, from around confirmed 500,000 cases. Hong Kong, by comparison, recorded more than 9,000

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FORMER ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR PLEADS GUILTY TO EMBEZZLING FUNDS FROM JOHNSON CO. DISTRICT COURT

DOJ Press0

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas woman pleaded guilty today to federal charges of wire fraud and filing a false tax return related to a scheme to embezzle money from the Johnson County District Court in Olathe, Kansas.    According to court documents, Dawna Kellogg, 61, of Williamsburg—while employed in the accounting department at the Johnson County District Court—stole at least $776,691.50 in cash from her employer between January 2010 and June 2017. Kellogg’s legal name was Dawna Brandt at the time. As the Accounting Supervisor for the Court, Kellogg managed the accounting department, collected funds from each separate county

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U.S. accounting watchdog sanctions KPMG’s ex-vice chair of audit

Reuters0

By Chris Prentice and Susan Heavey WASHINGTON -The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) on Tuesday said it has sanctioned KPMG LLP’s former vice chair of audit for his role in a high-profile scandal involving leaked information from the accounting industry oversight body. The PCAOB fined Scott Marcello $100,000, its largest ever penalty against an individual, for failing to reasonably supervise KPMG personnel who engaged in a scheme to illegally obtain and use confidential PCAOB information. The settlement marked the first time the PCAOB has imposed sanctions for “failure reasonably to supervise,” the board said in a statement. PCAOB Chair

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Exclusive – Investors warn European companies over climate accounting

Reuters0

By Simon Jessop LONDON – Thirty-four investors managing more than $7 trillion in assets have warned 17 of Europe’s largest companies, including BP and Volkswagen, that they could challenge board directors over their accounting of climate risks. The move is the latest push by investors to pressure companies and their auditors, charging them with not moving fast enough to adapt to the world’s transition to a low-carbon economy or being clear enough about the potential impacts. In letters sent between December and February and seen by Reuters, the investors told the companies their accounts did not reflect the fallout from

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Former Accounting Manager Pleads Guilty To Stealing From Chickasaw Nation

DOJ Press0

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Christopher Wallace Covington, age 41, of Ada, Oklahoma, entered a guilty plea to an Information charging him with one count of Theft Concerning Programs Receiving Federal Funds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 666(a)(1)(A).  The offense is punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, or both. The Information alleged that from January 6, 2017 to May 11, 2021, the defendant, an accounting manager within the Chickasaw Nation Department of Treasury, Division of Headquarters Finance, stole and

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Accounting firms KPMG and PwC to exit Russia

Reuters0

– Two of the Big Four accounting firms KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) on Sunday said they will no longer have a member firm in Russia due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The auditing and consultancy giant KPMG said its Russia and Belarus firm will leave the KPMG network, a move that will affect over 4,500 partners and staff in Russia and Belarus. Separately, PwC agreed PwC Russia will leave its network. The firm has operated in Russia for more than 30 years, and has 3,700 partners and staff there, it said. “As a result of the Russian government’s

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Appeal court acquits former BT Italy exec on false accounting charge

Reuters0

MILAN – A Milan appeals court has acquitted Stefania Truzzoli, former chief operating officer at BT Italy, of alleged false accounting at the Italian unit of British Telecom in 2015 and 2016, legal and judicial sources said on Friday. The public prosecutor’s office had asked the court to overturn an earlier conviction in the case. The detailed reasons for the decision will be released only in three months’ time, the sources added. Truzzoli had initially opted for a separate fast-track trial behind closed doors which resulted in a sentence of one year imprisonment in November 2020, against which she appealed.

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U.S. SEC announces charges, penalty on medtech firm Baxter for accounting improprieties

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– The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday announced charges and an $18 million penalty against medtech firm Baxter International Inc for engaging in “improper intra-company foreign exchange transactions” resulting in the misstatement of its net income. The SEC also announced settled charges against Baxter’s former treasurer and assistant treasurer, Scott Bohaboy and Jeffrey Schaible, respectively, for their misconduct related to these transactions. “From at least 1995 to 2019, Baxter used a convention to convert non-U.S. dollar denominated transactions and assets and liabilities on its financial statements that was not in accordance with U.S. GAAP or generally accepted accounting

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Former bookkeeper of a St. Louis accounting firm sentenced to prison for $670K fraud scheme

DOJ Press0

ST. LOUIS – Paula Smith, 69, of O’Fallon, Missouri, appeared before United States District Court Judge Matthew T. Schelp on today’s date.  Smith was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison.  Smith previously pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud and one count of money laundering.    Smith was a bookkeeper at an accounting firm that managed a lucrative trust account for a client (the D.E.W. Trust).  The D.E.W. Trust, which was at one time valued at $8.6 million, had over twenty named beneficiaries, including twelve charitable organizations in St. Louis, Missouri.  Between October 2013 and June 2018, Smith defrauded

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Former CEO Of Publicly Traded Houston Company Sentenced To Three Years In Prison For Accounting Fraud And Misappropriation Schemes

DOJ Press0

Damian Williams, the United State Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that JEFFREY HASTINGS, the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of SAExploration Holdings, Inc. (“SAEX” or the “Company”), a publicly traded seismic data company based in Houston, Texas, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to three years in prison for his role in a scheme to fraudulently and materially inflate the publicly reported revenue of SAEX by tens of millions of dollars, in 2015 and 2016, and also for misappropriating millions of dollars from the Company. On August 13,

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