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Accounting Scandals
Accounting scandals are business scandals that arise from intentional manipulation of financial statements with the disclosure of financial misdeeds by trusted executives of corporations or governments. Such misdeeds typically involve complex methods for misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of corporate assets, or underreporting the existence of liabilities; these can be detected either manually, or by means of deep learning. It involves an employee, account, or corporation itself and is misleading to investors and shareholders. This type of "creative accounting" can amount to fraud, and investigations are typically launched by government oversight agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States. Employees who commit accounting fraud at the request of their employers are subject to personal criminal prosecution. Two types of fraud Misappropriation of assets Misappropriat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corporate Abuse
A corporate collapse typically involves the insolvency or bankruptcy of a major business enterprise. A corporate scandal involves alleged or actual unethical behavior by people acting within or on behalf of a corporation. Many recent corporate collapses and scandals have involved some type of false or inappropriate accounting (see list at accounting scandals). List of major corporate collapses The following list of corporations involved major collapses, through the risk of job losses or size of the business, and meant entering into insolvency or bankruptcy, or being nationalised or requiring a non-market loan by a government. List of scandals without insolvency * Australia & New Zealand Banking Group scandal involving misleading file notes in the Financial Ombudsman Service (Australia) presented to the Supreme Court of Victoria. * Australia & New Zealand Banking Group allegations of racial bigotry toward billionaire businessman Pankaj Oswal and his wife. Court was presented ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Financial Reporting
Financial statements (or financial reports) are formal records of the financial activities and position of a business, person, or other entity. Relevant financial information is presented in a structured manner and in a form which is easy to understand. They typically include four basic financial statements accompanied by a management discussion and analysis: # A balance sheet reports on a company's assets, liabilities, and owners equity at a given point in time. # An income statement reports on a company's income, expenses, and profits over a stated period. A profit and loss statement provides information on the operation of the enterprise. These include sales and the various expenses incurred during the stated period. # A statement of changes in equity reports on the changes in equity of the company over a stated period. # A cash flow statement reports on a company's cash flow activities, particularly its operating, investing and financing activities over a stated period ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Acceptance Corporation
Atlantic Acceptance Corporation, Ltd. was an Oakville, Ontario-based finance company. It collapsed in June 1965 in one of the biggest financial scandals in Canada at that time, with an estimated $65 million loss to investors. Background Atlantic Acceptance was a finance company specializing in commercial, real estate and auto loans. It began business in 1953 and was eventually headed by Campbell Powell Morgan, a chartered accountant living in Toronto's Lawrence Park district. Control of Atlantic came to be held by Lambert International, headed by financier Jean Lambert. The company experienced fast growth in the early 1960s, with sales increasing from $25 million in 1960 to $176 million in 1964. It became the sixth largest sales finance company in Canada in 1965, with assets of $150 million. Through Lambert's connections on Wall Street, the company attracted loans from major banks, pension funds, universities and other investors such as United States Steel and Carnegie Pens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KPMG
KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 employees, affiliated with KPMG International Limited, a private English company limited by guarantee. The name "KPMG" stands for "Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler". The initialism was chosen when KMG (Klynveld Main Goerdeler) merged with Peat Marwick in 1987. KPMG has three lines of services: financial audit, tax, and advisory. Its tax and advisory services are further divided into various service groups. In the 21st century, various parts of the firm's global network of affiliates have been involved in regulatory actions as well as lawsuits. History Early years and mergers In 1816, Robert Fletcher started working as an accountant and in 1839 the firm he worked for changed its name to Robert Fletcher & Co. William Barclay Peat join ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
McKesson And Robbins Scandal
The McKesson and Robbins scandal was a major financial scandal in 1938, involving McKesson and Robbins, Inc, now McKesson Corporation. It is widely considered one the largest financial scandals of the 20th century. McKesson and Robbins was taken over in 1925 by Phillip Musica, who previously used Adelphia Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company as a front for bootlegging operations. Musica, a twice-convicted felon, used assumed names to conceal his true identity in taking control of the two companies: Frank D. Costa at Adelphia Pharmaceutical and F. Donald Coster at McKesson and Robbins. Although Musica was successful in expanding the company's legitimate business operations, he recruited three of his brothers, also working under assumed names, one outside the company and two inside it, to generate bogus sales documentation and to pay commissions to a shell distribution company under their control. McKesson and Robbins treasurer Julian Thompson discovered the distribution company w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interstate Hosiery Mills
Interstate Hosiery Mills was started in 1932 by two brothers, Harold and Lawrence Greenwald. In a legal settlement, they received an unlimited license to produce a patented pointed toe stocking in a patent held by a company, Gotham Gold Toe Hosiery. Gotham marketed their product with a gold threaded toe so Interstate used a coral band around the top of the stocking. Interstate grew to be the largest hosiery finisher in the United States until the accounting discrepancy was uncovered in 1937. The company operated until 1954 at which time Harold retired and Lawrence brokered an employment agreement with the purchaser of the assets, Burlington Industries. Lawrence went on to be president of Burlington's division, Patentex, and later founder and chairman of Hurst Performance Products, Inc., the company which invented the jaws of life, a patent which they gave to the public domain at no cost. Interstate Hosiery Mills was a company involved in a case of fraudulent stock manipulation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Mail Case
The Royal Mail Case or ''R v Kylsant & Otrs'' was a noted English criminal case in 1931. The director of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, Lord Kylsant, had falsified a trading prospectus with the aid of the company accountant to make it look as if the company was profitable and to entice potential investors. Following an independent audit instigated by HM Treasury, Kylsant and Harold John Morland, the company auditor, were arrested and charged with falsifying both the trading prospectus and company records and accounts. Although they were acquitted of falsifying records and accounts, Kylsant was found guilty of falsifying the trading prospectus and sentenced to twelve months in prison. The company was then liquidated, and reconstituted as The Royal Mail Lines Ltd with the backing of the British government. As well as its immediate impact, the case instigated massive changes in the way companies were audited. In 1947, the Companies Act was passed, criminalizing the failure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarence Hatry
Clarence Charles Hatry (16 December 1888 – 10 June 1965) was an English company promoter, financier, bankrupt, bookseller and publisher. The fall of the Hatry group in September 1929, which had been worth about £24 million (), is cited as a contributing factor to the Wall Street crash of 1929.John Stepak"Did one man trigger the Great Depression?" ''Money Week'', 17 November 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2019. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith described Hatry as "one of those curiously un-English figures with whom the English periodically find themselves unable to cope." Rise in business Born in Hampstead, London, Hatry began his professional career as an insurance clerk in London's West End. Shrewd fellow-promoters remembered that "Clarence" made his first big profit in silk. He then recouped the ensuing bankruptcy in insurance, through City Equitable, a modest reinsurance business. It was bought from German and Austrian owners in 1914 for £60,000; Hatry reorganised it in six mon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ultramares Corp
''Ultramares Corporation v. Touche'', 174 N.E. 441 (1932) is a US tort law case regarding negligent misstatement, decided by Cardozo, C.J. It contained the now famous line on "floodgates" that the law should not admit "to a liability in an indeterminate amount for an indeterminate time to an indeterminate class." Facts In 1924 auditors Touche Niven gave the rubber importer, Fred Stern and Company, an unqualified audit certificate, having failed to discover that management had falsified entries to overstate accounts receivable. The auditors knew that the accounts when certified would be used to raise money and for that purpose supplied 32 certified and serially numbered copies: p. 442. On the faith of one of those copies, given to it on its demand, the plaintiff, Ultramares Corporation, lent Fred Stern and Company money. Stern declared bankruptcy in 1925. Ultramares sued Touche Niven for the amount of the Stern debt, declaring that a careful audit would have shown Stern to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opportunism
300px, ''Opportunity Seized, Opportunity Missed'', engraving by Theodoor Galle, 1605 Opportunism is the practice of taking advantage of circumstances — with little regard for principles or with what the consequences are for others. Opportunist actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. The term can be applied to individual humans and living organisms, groups, organizations, styles, behaviors and trends. Opportunism or "opportunistic behaviour" is an important concept in such fields of study as biology, transaction cost economics, game theory, ethics, psychology, sociology and politics. Etymology In the early 19th century, the term "opportunist" as a noun or adjective was already known and used in several European languages, but initially, it rarely referred to political processes or to a political tendency. The English term "opportunism" is possibly borrowed originally from the Italian expression ''opportunismo''. In 19th-century Itali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firesale
A fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices. The term originated in reference to the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage. It may or may not be defined as a closeout, the final sale of goods to zero inventory. They are said to occur in the financial markets when bidders who value assets highly are prevented from bidding on them, depressing the average selling price below what it otherwise would be. This lowering of the price can cause even further issues because it may be inaccurately perceived as signalling negative information. History The term is adapted from reference to the sale of fire-damaged goods at reduced prices. In ''Proceedings of the Fitchburg ass.Historical Society and Papers Relating to the History of the Town Read by Some of the Members'' the following entry is found: In December, 1856, the account of an extensive fire in the American House mentions the following occupants: E. B. Gee, clothing; T. B. Choate, drugs; J. C. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Handshake
A golden handshake is a clause in an executive employment contract that provides the executive with a significant severance package in the case that the executive loses their job through firing, restructuring, or even scheduled retirement. This can be in the form of cash, equity, and other benefits, and is often accompanied by an accelerated vesting of stock options. According to Investopedia, a golden handshake is similar to, but more generous than a golden parachute because it not only provides monetary compensation and/or stock options at the termination of employment, but also includes the same severance packages executives would get at retirement. The term originated in Britain in the mid-1960s. It was coined by the city editor of the ''Daily Express'', Frederick Ellis. It later gained currency in New Zealand in the late 1990s over the controversial departures of various state sector executives. "Golden handshakes" are typically offered only to high-ranking executive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
