Accounting fraud comes in many forms. Some fraud is quite complex and can last for decades, as we recently discovered with the Olympus accounting scandal. When executive management and even board members are in collusion it is very difficult to detect this kind of fraud.

For those of you who received roughly 30 article posts, all linking back to the same article from 2010, we do apologize!

Happy Holidays!

COSO is coming out with a revision to the famous 'COSO Cube' and they have submitted a draft for public comment. The COSO Cube provides the basis for all internal control infrastructures, including Sarbanes-Oxley implementations, and it gives guidance on how to structure and audit control procedures. PwC participate in the update and they have provided a nice synopsis below of the pending change:

We wanted to pose a question to our readers - aside from the perceived investor value added by selecting a Big 4 audit firm (PwC, KPMG, E&Y, or Deloitte), what other value does selecting these large audit firms add over a smaller firm?  

We are occasionally asked what impact, if any, the FCPA has on internal controls other than asking the obvious question, “Have you seen any violations of the FCPA?” Many people might not be aware that the FCPA calls out specific internal control responsibilities as part of their Books and Records and Internal Control provisions, which require:

Let's just get down to the skinny of it, audits in any form are painful. We get that.

 Google SAS 104-115 and you will find mostly articles by us (Vibato) discussing the need for auditors to pay special attention to internal controls as part of their audit. Why? Because the AICPA & the PCAOB dictates standards that the auditors must adhere to in order to perform their audits. Parts of these requirements include reviewing your internal controls and this applies to ANY COMPANY THAT IS AUDITED – public, private, non-profit; it doesn’t matter. If you are audited, your auditors must look at your internal controls as part of your audit. If you do not have any documented internal controls then be prepared for a higher audit bill because your auditors will have to go looking for internal controls at your company on your dime year-over-year. Moreover, due to independence issues, they are not allowed to share their work with you to use going forward so they will do this work each year and all you will see for it is a higher bill. Period.

Yesterday, the PCAOB  issued Staff Audit Practice Alert No. 8: Audit Risks in Certain Emerging Markets, which the PCAOB says "focuses on the risks of misstatement due to fraud that auditors might encounter in audits of companies with operations in emerging markets, auditors' responsibilities for addressing those risks, and certain other auditor responsibilities under PCAOB auditing standards." 

As widely reported on September 29, 2011, the Justice Department has joined the SEC in investigating alleged accounting fraud at Chinese companies listed on U.S. markets. In response, the market punished several Chinese companies listed on the Nasdaq (as much as 23%) which in turn brought the Nasdaq composite down over 1%.