Accounting and auditing enforcement actions at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board dropped sizably in 2025, falling to multiyear lows at both bodies, according to a report released Wednesday. The SEC brought 68% fewer accounting and auditing actions in 2025 than in 2024 and the PCAOB brought 27% fewer actions, according to two…
Nidec Corp. founder Shigenobu Nagamori once stood alongside his friends SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son and Fast Retailing Co.’s Tadashi Yanai, representing a new breed of Japanese entrepreneurs: Brash, ambitious and scathing in their condemnation of establishment, they called themselves “the three big-talking brothers.” Now, Nidec has flagged a series of suspected cases of improper accounting that risk tarnishing the…
SEC Chair Paul Atkins threatened Wednesday to reconsider a nearly two-decade-old decision allowing global companies to rely on international accounting rules when reporting their results to US investors. Efforts to craft global climate reporting rules risk diverting resources and attention away from setting accounting rules that investors depend on, Atkins said according to prepared remarks to an Organization for Economic…
Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, will enter the accounting market with a deal to acquire an equity stake in Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC, a top 20 US accounting and consulting firm. An investor group led by Blackstone announced Tuesday it will acquire a majority ownership in the firm, which serves privately held mid-market businesses and high net worth…
With young people lured by the higher salaries and lower entry requirements of finance and technology, the number of people taking the CPA exam run by the institute has fallen sharply, and accounting firms have demanded reforms to make it cheaper and quicker to get qualified. In a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times, Melancon expressed scepticism about some of…
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Entergy Corporation, a Louisiana-based utility company, agreed to pay a $12 million civil penalty to settle charges that it failed to maintain internal accounting controls to ensure that its surplus materials and supplies were accurately recorded in its books and financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). According to…
A wave of midsize accounting firms is welcoming private equity into their bloodstream. For the top accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission, those deals present a number of risks. Several midsize audit and consulting firms in the U.S. are selling stakes, both large and small, to outside investors, often to boost funds for technology and talent. Grant Thornton’s U.K.…
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. agreed last month to pay $2.1 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that the marketing and printing company violated disclosure and internal accounting control rules stemming from a 2021 cybersecurity breach. The settlement, which comes amid heightened SEC focus on cybersecurity, represents a new—and expansive—take on the accounting control provisions. The regulator included…
Physicists calculate that approximately 85% of the matter in the universe is composed of “dark matter” that “does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation and is therefore difficult to detect.” The S&P 500 currently trades at a price to book value of 4.2, suggesting that book value accounts for less than 20% of the S&P 500’s market value. The…
On June 14, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final judgment against Karen Rosenberger, imposing an injunction and officer and director bar, and also ordering her to pay civil monetary penalties and reimburse Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (“Synchronoss”) for certain compensation. According to the SEC’s complaint, Rosenberger engaged in accounting misconduct which resulted…