Going Concern

From Russian government assassinations to multimillion-dollar blood-testing scams, there’s never a shortage of surreal fraud stories to rock the financial industry each year. And each year, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) hosts the ACFE Global Fraud Conference to bring to life these hardly believable (yet true) financial cases by way of those who lived through or uncovered them.

The 30th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference will be June 23-28 in Austin, Texas. (Those who can’t make it to Austin are encouraged to attend the Virtual Conference online.) The event features more than 80 speakers who will recall their fraud experiences of working for some of the most prestigious private and public financial institutions in the world.

Here’s a preview of five of the juiciest ones—but if you want the full stories and more, you’ll have to attend the conference.

1. From Russia to financial fraud with Browder

While it may sound more like a campy James Bond plot than a real-life money-laundering scheme, the tax return fraud that pitted Hermitage Capital head Bill Browder against the Russian government is every bit as real as Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s obsession with Persian cats.

According to testimony given by Browder’s tax advisor Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, Russian police and tax officials tried to steal $230 million in Russian taxes paid by Browder’s Moscow-based investment firm, Hermitage Capital.

Here’s where things take a turn for the Orwellian: Shortly after Magnitsky reported his findings to authorities, he was jailed and ultimately killed in prison.

Browder will be on hand at this year’s ACFE Global Fraud Conference to talk about the mind-blowing investigation and the resulting death of his friend, his involvement in passing the Magnitsky Act, and Russia’s current efforts to put him behind bars.

2. An offshore drilling

In what has been lauded as one of the largest and most successful financial data combs in history, the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers would never have seen the light of day if not for German journalist Bastian Obermayer.

After receiving information from anonymous sources, he and a team of other journalists exposed companies as big as Apple and Nike for their illegal offshore tax havens.

Just how big is this speaker? Alex Winter, who played Bill in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, recently directed a Hulu documentary about Obermayer’s financial fraud bombshell. Air guitar solo!

3. Financial fraud presidential prowess

As the first female to serve as chief information officer for a White House administration, from 2006 to 2008 Theresa Payton was in charge of countering the most egregious cyberattacks on our nation’s financial sector during the dawn of a new age of computer hacking.

Today, she is the founder and CEO of Fortalice Solutions and the co-founder of the cybersecurity firm Dark Cubed. Payton is regarded as one of the top 50 IT security experts in the world. As a speaker at this year’s ACFE Global Fraud Conference, she’ll have plenty to talk about—including her stint as an actor on the CBS show “Hunted.”

4. Breaking bad guys

You might call Lisa Osofsky the Harvey Dent of the fraud world (minus the whole acid-in-the-face thing). As a former FBI lawyer in the U.S., she helped put away high-level mafia figures, predatory lenders, and other financial swindlers.

One of her most notable prosecutions came in 2012, when HSBC failed to act on the Mexican drug cartel money being laundered through its banks. Monitoring the group’s financial moves for months, Osofsky and her team sprang into action—helping the U.S. Department of Justice force a $1.9 billion settlement from the British company.

In 2018, she became the U.K.’s director of the Serious Fraud Office, bringing her no-nonsense Gotham-esque crime-fighting experience across the pond. You won’t want to miss her when she heads to Austin in June (register for the ACFE Global Fraud Conference now).

5. Being positive about bloody financial fraud

Known as the key whistleblower at the now-defunct Theranos healthcare group, Tyler Shultz exposed the company for its false claim that it had invented technology to minimize blood-testing practices. Subsequently, its founder Elizabeth Holmes was indicted on wire fraud and conspiracy charges, with much of the evidence against her derived from Shultz’s depositions and interviews.

Shultz is now the CEO and co-founder of Flux Biosciences Inc. and was named a “30 Under 30” by Forbes in 2017. He’ll be accepting an award at this year’s conference.

Hear the full financial fraud stories at the ACFE Global Fraud Conference

In addition to the distinguished speakers and keynote sessions, this year’s ACFE Global Fraud Conference will feature two new programs designed to help you earn the CFE credential.

Attendees will also have access to more than 100 educational sessions and can earn up to 40 CPE credits. On top of that, it’s a fun networking experience that gives you a competitive edge among your financial peers.

Don’t miss this opportunity to accelerate your finance or accounting career—and hear all of the exclusive details from this year’s biggest financial fraud stories. Plan to be in Austin, Texas, from June 23-28 to attend the 30th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference.

(If you can’t get to Austin but don’t want to miss out, you can still attend the Virtual Conference for access to live online sessions, on-demand videos, and the opportunity to earn up to 26 CPE credits.)

Learn more about the ACFE Global Fraud Conference.

Or go ahead and register for the ACFE Global Fraud Conference event now.

The post 5 Crazy Fraud Stories You Would Never Believe (If They Weren’t True) appeared first on Going Concern.

A couple of months ago, we reported that a partner and a principal bolted Grant Thornton earlier this year for the blue-and-white confines of KPMG, one of whom actually left and came back to the House of Klynveld. Well, it looks like the Purple Rose of Chicago has turned the tables on KPMG.

Grant Thornton LLP has added two key professionals to its Corporate Value Consulting practice within Transaction Services. Managing Director Brad Edwards and Principal Tim Frehner recently joined the firm, based in Seattle and San Francisco, respectively.

Edwards has nearly 20 years of professional experience spanning corporate finance consulting; financial analysis; and valuation of businesses, intangible assets and complex securities across a range of industries. Before joining Grant Thornton, he was a managing director in KPMG’s Houston office.

Frehner’s more than 20 years of experience includes corporate finance consulting; financial analysis; and business, complex securities and intangible asset valuation. His work touches multiple industries with a heavy focus on the technology sector. He also joins Grant Thornton from KPMG, where he was a managing director in the Silicon Valley office.

According to Edwards’ LinkedIn profile, he joined GT in February. And the funny thing is, he’s been poached by rival firms a few times now in his accounting career. He spent the first 10 years of his career at Deloitte, but in 2010, he left to join EY. Edwards stayed at EY for two years before he was poached by KPMG, where he worked for the past six years or so.

Frehner worked for KPMG for a little more than seven years before joining the House of McGuire in January, according to his LinkedIn profile. He started his career in the late ’90s with PwC.

I don’t know how often in the past these two firms have hired employees away from each other. I couldn’t find anything on the site that Caleb or Adrienne had posted in the past. So maybe this is the start of a new (or rekindling an old) rivalry?

[Grant Thornton]

The post Grant Thornton Poaches Two People From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Part I appeared first on Going Concern.

How can CPA firms be so white and male when they’re so dedicated to diversity?

Look at any firm’s career site and you’ll see a carefully written commitment to diversity. Read enough of them and you’ll soon realize that diversity statements all sound the same. The profession can’t even come up with diverse ways to talk about the diversity it doesn’t have.

Therein lies the problem: Everybody uses the same (safe) language because most firms are describing the same types of programs that, hello, aren’t really solving the problem.

Here are three ways new accounting graduates can figure out what’s really going on at a firm, the better to see if its values are in line with yours:

1. Count names and/or faces

Get your fingers out and start counting the actual number of women and minorities on the firm’s management committee and, if they show photos at their website, among its partners and principals.

What you’re looking for is an accounting firm that at least meets, and hopefully beats, the overall averages for women and minorities in top spots. After all, if the programs and culture the firm describes on its career page actually work, they’ll have results, right? At the very least, the firm should report steady improvement, right?

Not usually. Precious few firms actually show their work, explaining what their diversity goals are and if they’re achieving them. So you get to count noses. Don’t worry, you won’t run out of fingers.

Most “best places to work” lists won’t help because most of them just blather on about workplace benefits and amenities, not programs that actually hold leaders accountable for retaining and advancing diverse staff.

I’d know: I run the “Best CPA Firms for Women” list, sponsored by the Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance (AFWA). It is based on the Accounting MOVE Project, an annual benchmarking report that shows firms how they are doing in terms of advancing women and diverse staff, and how they can do better. (Full disclosure: The project is supported by founding sponsor Moss Adams and national sponsor CohnReznick.)

Our goal is to be unironic, which is basically an endless battle, given that many of the winners for local and national “best places” lists also are in the news for festering pay gaps and chronic discrimination complaints.

It doesn’t help that there’s plenty of inequity to analyze.

The harsh reality is that women comprise 51% of CPA firm employees but only 26% of partners and principals. That’s according to the soon-to-be-released 2019 Accounting MOVE Project report (check out the 2018 report and archives for the inequity backstory).

If women are scarce in leadership, minorities are practically absent. White people hold 94% of partner and principal positions at firms. All minorities, together, share the remaining 6%. (That’s according to the 2018 Diversity & Inclusion Report for CPA and Advisory Firms, and here’s more full disclosure: The sponsor is Grant Thornton.)

2. Look at a firm’s leadership pipeline

Now you’ve got your benchmarks and you can see how the firm under consideration compares.

But what about the pipeline, you say? Isn’t it just a matter of time before women and minorities automatically move up, as baby boomers (finally) wither and scroll off?

Don’t confuse succession planning with conveyer belts. Only 52% of firms have formal succession planning. Without a plan, chances are slim that women and minorities will wait around for opportunities that haven’t materialized for others. Therein lies the retention problem.

Here’s how to glimpse a firm’s pipeline. Go to the news section of its site and look at the makeup of the last few “partner classes.” A firm with a real succession plan will have a healthy—even an increasing—proportion of women and minorities. If the firm is just promoting more of the same, its leadership will continue to be more of the same. You will have to piece together the pipeline. Very few firms hold themselves accountable and disclose their diversity process in a clear, consistent way. One that does is Moss Adams, through its annual diversity report.

3. See if women are heading up new practices

Here’s the last strategy for cutting through the haze of happy talk: Look at who is opening new markets and leading new practices.

Some firms, like Novogradac, Rehmann, Plante Moran, and MCM, open new offices with women in charge, elevate women to practice leadership, or both. Why does that matter? Because running an office or a practice is a microcosm of running a whole firm. That’s how partners qualify, eventually, to be the top dog.

The accounting profession won’t have more women and minorities running firms if women and minorities don’t get a chance to show they can make money on a smaller scale.

There you go, BS detector tuned up and ready for job-hunting season. Have fun!

[Ed. note: The 2019 Accounting MOVE Project report (along with the Best CPA Firms for Women and Best CPA Firms for Leadership Equity lists) will be released in early June by the AFWA.]

About the author:

Joanne Cleaver is a communications consultant and author who works with associations on projects that measure and support the advancement of diverse talent.

The post How New Accounting Grads Can Tune Up Their Diversity BS Detectors appeared first on Going Concern.

Back in the day we used to end the week with a “Quote of the Week,” but that shit gets boring fast, so instead I got the bright idea to do a Winners vs Losers recap. You should be able to figure out how this works as it isn’t rocket science but just in case: let’s talk about who in the accounting profession won and who lost for the week based on headlines we’ve written about, seen, or both. Easy, right? Let’s go.

via GIPHY

Winner: This old ass MF [trigger warning: his blogspot site is cancer] who still uses paper forms and fears the cloud:

“In 45 years of preparing individual income tax returns I have never used flawed and expensive tax preparation software. One of the last of the dinosaurs, I prepare over 250 sets of returns each year manually.”

Losers: CCH customers everywhere

via GIPHY

Winner: Grant Thornton
Look, it pains us more than anyone to say this but GT is kinda sorta kicking ass these days. First they got a pretty fantastic PCAOB inspection report, then news they have been poaching KPMG talent. You go, GT.

Loser: KPMG
Honestly, do I even need to write anything here? Probably not.

via GIPHY

Winners: Auditors

Losers: Auditors

OK allow me to explain. If you caught Bramwell’s article the other day about the PCAOB’s “teaser trailer,” you know that this document from the PCAOB is like E3 except swap big AAA game titles for inspection thorns up auditors’ asses. In other words, it’s sort of like “COMING SOON, the title of the year!” and everyone gets all excited but then the future gets here and the exciting title promised was Fallout 76.

Anyway, in the end we feel like auditors came out winning in some parts (better inspections of late, recognition that audit firms are taking steps toward improving audit quality, you get the idea) and losing in others (auditors are still struggling with the same areas year after year after year and have yet to embrace their robot overlords to implement automation tools that could make their jobs easier).

via GIPHY

Winners: Professional women who are sick of getting skeeved on by creeps all the time

Loser: This idiot who sent dick pics to a chick looking for a job on LinkedIn a while back and then tried to get us to remove his name from the story we wrote about him two years ago now that he and his dick are “reformed.”

Including the email we received from what looks to be an actual law firm the other day about scrubbing his name below:

And that’s it, our winners and losers for the week. Thoughts? Commentary? Assy quips? Let ’em rip in the comments in the below.

The post Winners v. Losers This Week: Dick Pics, Grant Thornton’s Heyday, Auditors F*cked As Always appeared first on Going Concern.

The Minnesota Star Tribune has an update on Ben Hendrickson, the former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher whose post-baseball accounting career took a dubious turn while employed by Floors Northwest in Fridley, MN.

A Twin Cities man who briefly pitched in the Twins organization and had two short stints as a Major Leaguer has pleaded guilty after being accused of cheating a post-baseball employer out of roughly $250,000 while working as an accountant.

Benjamin J. Hendrickson, 38, of Excelsior, pleaded guilty in Anoka County District Court last week to two counts of theft by swindle, which cover more than $145,000 of the overall total. Two other counts were dismissed.

The plea agreement calls for Hendrickson to serve a 90-day sentence. Formal sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 26.

According to the criminal complaint, while working at Floors Northwest, Hendrickson altered the amount of cash received to make it look like less was collected from sales staff. He deposited the lower amount and pocketed the rest, the Star Tribune reported. Nearly $160,000 of the money Hendrickson stole was taken in the final two years of his employment.

According to Hendrickson’s LinkedIn page, he began working at Floors Northwest in January 2013. The Star Tribune reported that he worked there until 2017.

Hendrickson also shifted $10,000 of the company’s money to a personal healthcare account that paid his medical bills, according to the complaint.

The former pitcher told police he thought he only stole between $50,000 and $75,000, and did it to help pay bills.

Hendrickson had a less-than-stellar Major League career, appearing in 10 games for the Brewers in 2004 and four games in 2006, finishing his pitching career with a won/loss record of 1-10 and an earned run average of 7.41.

The post Bad MLB Pitcher-Turned-Bad Accountant Fesses Up to Stealing $145,000 From Employer appeared first on Going Concern.

It was a bad week for accountants from the U.K. with the first name of Andrew.

AFC Fylde accountant blew £240,000 on sex, drink and drugs [BBC News]
A semi-professional socc … I mean, football team in England nearly went belly-up because its finance director, Andrew Barnbrook, stole thousands of pounds from the team to spend on cocaine, alcohol, and a webcam model.

Barnbrook, 38, who admitted to the theft, was sent to prison for 32 months. The club, AFC Fylde, was only able to survive because it was part of a larger group, Tangerine Holdings, and could borrow money.

Barnbrook spent gobs of money he stole on webcam model Victoria Sinclair, including shopping trips to Harrods and buying her Chanel handbags. She claims their relationship was not physical, after admitting Barnbrook had blown between £50,000 and £70,000 on luxury gifts for her. And Barnbrook apparently paid £8 a minute for Sinclair’s live webcam services.

Judge Andrew Jeffries QC told him: “You stuck the money up your nose, drank in champagne bars, befriended a live sex cam model, bought lavish gifts for her and paid for her time.”

Rita Ora and Matt Dawson fraudster accountant jailed [BBC News]
Andrew Munday, an accountant who defrauded celebrity clients, including singer Rita Ora and retired English rugby player Matt Dawson, was found guilty on nine counts of fraud and sentenced to five years and eight months in jail.

Munday, 38, used money from the fraud, totaling at least £3.35 million, to buy houses, Star Wars and football memorabilia, and an executive lounge membership at Tottenham Hotspur.

In a victim statement, singer VV Brown said Munday had “ruined a lot of people’s lives” and left “deep scars” in relation to trust.

Munday caused a loss to former X Factor judge Ora’s company of nearly £2.4 million during the seven years he was committing fraud.

He had previously declared bankruptcy after building up gambling debts.

Ahmed Seedat used wheel brace to murder wife Fahima Yusuf before burying her in Carlisle backyard [Australian Broadcasting Corp.]
So, this is all sorts of fucked up:

A Perth accountant killed his wife with a wheel brace while his young children slept in another room and then buried her body in the backyard of the family home, the Supreme Court has been told.

Ahmed Seedat, 37, was charged with murder in September last year after the body of Fahima Yusuf, 32, were discovered buried in a shallow grave at the Carlisle property.

He pleaded guilty in January and faced a sentencing hearing today [May 8] where details of the crime were revealed for the first time.

Among the gory details:

The hole his wife’s body was buried in had been dug by a landscape gardener hired by Seedat weeks earlier; he told the contractor he was planning to install a pool.
In the weeks before killing his wife, Seedat searched on the Internet things like “burying a cat,” “cremating a body,” and “burying someone aliv” [sic].
Text messages between Seedat and his wife’s sister infer that he had wanted to progress his relationship with his sister-in-law after his wife’s death. He also searched on the Internet: “Can you marry brother in law if sister dead, muslim?”

Seedat will be sentenced for the murder conviction later this month.

Beijing Imprisons Accountant Buying Beauty on State’s Dime [Sixth Tone]
Zhang Honghong, formerly an accountant at China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, was recently sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzling more than 12 million yuan ($1.75 million) from state coffers to spend on beauty services and other expenses.

Zhang was found guilty of misappropriating public funds between 2001 and 2017—half of which was spent on beauty services, including plastic surgeries.

She confessed to her supervisor about embezzling “part of the work unit’s money” by falsifying some expenses in the ministry’s bookkeeping while omitting others.

Man charged with embezzling $1 million from nonprofit previously served 18 months in prison [Port Huron Times Herald]
Richard Hartwick, an accountant who worked at Blue Water Center for Independent Living in Port Huron, MI, is accused of embezzling more than $1 million from the facility.

Hartwick, 71, is facing charges of embezzlement of $100,000 or more, computer fraudulent access, using a computer to commit a crime, financial transaction forgery, accounting violations, conducting a criminal enterprise and racketeering.

According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, Hartwick was sentenced on May 8, 2000, to two to 10 years in prison on a charge of embezzlement, agent or trustee more than $100. He served 18 months at Pine River Correctional Facility before being granted parole.

Investigators have said Hartwick was convicted of embezzlement in 2000, suspected of having embezzled more than $3 million from an auto supplier in the Detroit area over six years.

The post Accountants Behaving Badly: Murder, Webcam Models, Defrauding Celebrities appeared first on Going Concern.

In the comment section of an article we posted on May 10 about a managing director and a partner recently fleeing KPMG to join Grant Thornton’s Corporate Value Consulting practice, we got a tip that the Purple Rose of Chicago recently poached KPMG again—Candice Turner left the HoK to join GT as a principal in the firm’s M&A Tax Services practice in New York City.

While Grant Thornton hasn’t yet officially issued a press release welcoming Turner to the House of McGuire, an internal memo announcing her arrival must have been sent around, as Turner posted it to her LinkedIn profile. And that’s good enough for us.

The announcement, titled “Candice Turner, Principal, joins the Northeast M&A Tax Services Practice,” was signed by David Platt, managing partner, Northeast Region; Ken Seel, Tax practice leader, Northeast Region; and Chris Schenkenberg, national managing partner, M&A Tax Services.

It says:

Team,

I am pleased to announce that Candice Turner, Principal, has joined Grant Thornton in our M&A Tax Services business line, and is based in the Manhattan office.

Candice has more than 20 years of public accounting and private industry experience. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Candice was a Principal in the M&A practice of KPMG. Candice was previously a Partner at the law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, a Trial Attorney with the Department of Justice Tax Division in Washington DC, and an attorney with Shearman & Sterling.

Candice has advised clients with respect to all US and international tax matters. She has represented funds, sovereigns, foreign pensions and consortiums on investments, acquisitions, refinancings, and exit strategies across various asset classes, including infrastructure, real estate, private equity and public capital markets.

Candice has also authored many articles and publications on international tax and is an active leader in international tax organizations.

Candice is an attorney with a JD and an LLM in taxation (NYU School of Law) and a B.S. in Mathematics and English (University of Alabama).

Please join us in welcoming Candice to the Northeast Tax Team, and to Grant Thornton.

Turner joined KPMG in November 2015, according to her LinkedIn page. And you can read more about Turner on her KPMG profile, which hasn’t been taken down yet.

There’s been quite a bit of competitive poaching between these two firms recently. Let’s see if it continues.

Related articles:

KPMG Poaches Someone From Grant Thornton and Issues a Press Release, Parts I and II
Grant Thornton Poaches Two People From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Part I

The post Grant Thornton Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Part II appeared first on Going Concern.

The woman in the photo above is Nina Olson. She is the National Taxpayer Advocate. Olson has been the National Taxpayer Advocate since March 2001. But she will retire on July 31, 2019. Now you, tax guy or tax gal, can be the next National Taxpayer Advocate and write ridiculously long reports to Congress each year about what the IRS does good, what the IRS does bad, and why the IRS needs more money.

The IRS has begun the process of trying to find Olson’s replacement. The ideal candidate, according to the Service, “should have a background in customer service and tax law as well as experience in representing individual taxpayers.”

The IRS said Title 26 of U.S.C. §7803 (c) provides additional information on the NTA.

What does the National Taxpayer Advocate do? Here’s the job description from the IRS:

The NTA leads the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service division, an independent organization inside the IRS and comprised of approximately 1,800 geographically dispersed employees and managers, with 79 offices (including at least one in each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico). The NTA is the senior advisor to the Commissioner on issues of taxpayer concerns, focusing efforts on improving processes affecting taxpayers and emphasizing the IRS’s role in assisting taxpayers comply with their legal requirements. The NTA serves as the taxpayer’s “voice” and serves as a contributor to the IRS’s strategic management in formulating tax administration policy, long-range objectives, and internal administration aimed at modernizing business practices, management roles and performance measures. Additionally, the person is responsible for assisting taxpayers in resolving problems with the IRS and proposing changes to administrative policies or legislative solutions mitigating identified problems. The National Taxpayer Advocate annually submits two reports directly to Congress on areas of tax law that impose significant burdens on taxpayers or the IRS, including recommending potential legislative changes to lessen those burdens.

Got it? Good. Email your letter of interest and your resume to OfficeofExecutiveServices@irs.gov by May 24, 2019.

The post Hiring Watch ’19: Become the Next National Taxpayer Advocate appeared first on Going Concern.

When we talk about IRS scams, we’re usually referring to chain-smoking Indian dudes packed into a dingy call center trying to scam Google Play cards out of your grandma. Although few Americans might say they trust the IRS, I think we can all agree that at the end of the day, an overwhelming number of IRS agents are upstanding folk just trying to do their admittedly thankless job. Not the lady you’re about to meet.

Felecia Edna Taylor, 50, just threw away an astonishing 29-year career with the IRS after getting caught trying to hustle a taxpayer out of $5,000. The taxpayer who shall hereforth be referred to by his initials S.W. came to Ms. Taylor’s Long Beach office looking for help with his $33,000 tax burden. That’s when Ms. Taylor allegedly got the bright idea to skim a few thousand off the top in exchange for lowering said taxpayer’s burden. Let’s see what the Department of Justice has to say:

According to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Taylor, who has been employed at the IRS since 1990, works as a tax compliance officer in Long Beach, where she plans and conducts examinations of individual and business taxpayers. On May 1, a taxpayer contacted law enforcement, and stated that, at a meeting two days earlier, Taylor was “inviting a bribe” in exchange for lowering the amount owed to the IRS to $10,000, according to court documents. The taxpayer was supposed to pay the bribe to Taylor on May 7 at her Long Beach office, court papers state.

The taxpayer met with law enforcement on Tuesday, was equipped with recording devices, and was given $5,000 in cash to give to Taylor, the affidavit states. According to a recording of that meeting, Taylor provided adjusted tax records to show a reduction of the taxpayer’s liability to $10,616 as agreed and, in response, the taxpayer handed Taylor an envelope containing $5,000 in cash. Taylor allegedly took the envelope in one hand, mouthed the word, “Five?” and placed five fingers in the air to non-verbally confirm the amount of cash the taxpayer had just given her. When the taxpayer replied, “Yes, what we agreed on, yep it’s all there,” Taylor placed the envelope on her desk and stated, “We are all done,” the affidavit states.

OK, first of all, the taxpayer deserves some credit for snitching her out. Considering how many millions (billions?) are scammed yearly from panicked taxpayers who honestly believe some Indian guy named Agent Smith is accepting iTunes gift cards in exchange for IRS penalties, it’s amazing he recognized the scam and reported it to authorities. I can only imagine how many grandmas she was able to scare into paying up until someone finally said something.

Second, what kind of dumb-ass criminal agent receives a bribe in her office? That’s just sloppy-ass crime work. Did she not watch “Breaking Bad”? Dead drop, yo, come on.

If she’s convicted, Taylor faces up to 15 years in prison, which makes you wonder just how bad she needed a few grand.

The post IRS Agent Lady Allegedly Tries and Fails to Scam Unwitting Taxpayer Out of Thousands appeared first on Going Concern.

The Working Mother list of the top 50 companies for multicultural women came out last week, and I honestly didn’t realize this was a thing until I saw this self-congratulatory tweet from PwC while scrolling through Twitter this morning:

PwC is proud to be named a 2019 @_WorkingMother_ Best Company for Multicultural Women! Learn more about our programs and policies that provide an inclusive workplace for all: https://t.co/IfQAuI7Gl6 #WMMulticultural #MothersDay2019 pic.twitter.com/93QADZaizt

— PwC US (@PwCUS) May 9, 2019

KPMG and EY also sent out tweets last week patting themselves on the back for making the list. Without having looked at Working Mother’s top 10 companies, I just assumed, given these tweets, that most, if not all, of the Big 4 firms made the first 10. Nope. No PwC. No Deloitte. No KPMG. No EY. No accounting firms.

Really? That’s kind of pathetic.

Instead, the top 10 companies for multicultural women, listed in alphabetical order, are:

Accenture
ADP
Anthem
IBM
L’Oréal USA
New York Life
Procter & Gamble
Verizon
Visa
WellStar Health System

Obviously, PwC, KPMG, and EY were among the top 50 companies listed. But no Deloitte, which makes sense because, well, no tweet. And it’s a little surprising because Deloitte and EY made the top 10 in Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies list for 2018.

First-timer Moss Adams was the only non-Big 4 accounting firm that made the list of the top 50 companies for multicultural women.

Let’s take a look at how PwC, KPMG, EY, and Moss Adams compare to three of the top 10 companies—ADP, Verizon, and Visa—in five different staffing and management areas for multicultural women employees:

Percentage of U.S. Workforce

ADP: 22%
Verizon: 17%
Visa: 27%

PwC: 16%
KPMG: 16%
EY: 18%
Moss Adams: 14%

Percentage of Corporate Executives

ADP: 9%
Verizon: 8%
Visa: 0%

PwC: 3%
KPMG: 3%
EY: 9%
Moss Adams: 5%

Percentage of Senior Managers

ADP: 9%
Verizon: 9%
Visa: 17%

PwC: 10%
KPMG: 9%
EY: 17%
Moss Adams: 3%

Percentage of Managers

ADP: 13%
Verizon: 10%
Visa: 25%

PwC: 17%
KPMG: 15%
EY: 22%
Moss Adams: 13%

Percentage of Top 20% Earners

ADP: 9%
Verizon: 10%
Visa: 16%

PwC: 10%
KPMG: 6%
EY: 10%
Moss Adams: 7%

Actually not bad in most areas, especially EY.

Anyway, congratulations I guess to PwC, KPMG, EY, and Moss Adams for at least making Working Mother’s top 50 companies list. Deloitte, do better.

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Did you guys see DiversityInc’s 2019 ranking of the top 5o companies for diversity? In past years, there’s been most, if not all, of the Big 4 represented. But not recently. Only one Big 4 firm made the list in 2018 and 2019, and that firm is KPMG.

Maybe KPMG nearly sweeping Vault’s 2020 accounting firm diversity rankings wasn’t a fluke after all.

KPMG came in ninth in this year’s DiversityInc list of the top 50 companies for diversity, dropping one spot from eighth in 2018.

This year’s top 10 companies are:

AT&T
Marriott International
ADP
Hilton
Eli Lilly and Company
Comcast NBCUniversal
Accenture
Mastercard
KPMG
Abbott

The House of Klynveld has made DiversityInc’s list every year since 2008 and has finished in the top 25 in 10 of those 12 years.

If you’re interested in such things, you can find DiversityInc’s methodology here, which includes:

The DiversityInc Top 50 ranking is based on empirical data obtained through organizations filling out the survey. Participation is free and companies that do business with DiversityInc receive no preferential treatment.

The survey tracks human capital outcomes and connects them with best practices utilized to promote the advancement of underrepresented groups in the workplace. And results are highly regarded by media, corporations, government agencies, academia and the public at large thanks to the exhaustive vetting of data tracking real diversity on the ground.

With more than 200 sophisticated questions — everything from women representation in the corner offices, to Blacks and Latinos getting promotions into management, to manager accountability when it comes to promoting diversity — applicants can see how they truly stack up against their competition and beyond when it comes to championing diversity.

The survey also tracks demographics outside of the employers’ internal workforce, tracking primary and secondary supplier diversity as a reflection of a larger diversity commitment.

While Deloitte is nowhere to be found, EY and PwC—both members of the DiversityInc Top 50 Hall of Fame—weren’t completely shut out in 2019, as they found their way on some of DiversityInc’s “specialty lists.”

Top Companies for Talent Acquisition

4. EY
5. PwC

Top Companies for Supplier Diversity

6. EY
7. PwC

Top Companies for People with Disabilities

6. EY
12. PwC

Top Companies for LGBT Employees (ranked alphabetically)

EY
KPMG
PwC

Top Companies for Employee Resource Groups

1. EY
10. KPMG

Top Companies for Mentoring

5. EY
7. PwC
11. KPMG

Top Companies for Diversity Councils

1. EY
10. KPMG
11. PwC

Top Companies for Executive Women

3. EY
14. KPMG
15. PwC

Top Companies for Sponsorship

6. EY
7. PwC
11. KPMG

The post KPMG Gets Another Award For Being the Big 4 Firm That Is the Least Old, Male, and Pale appeared first on Going Concern.

For those of us wondering what Cathy Engelbert is going to do next once her term as Deloitte CEO ends on June 1, it looks like we have our answer.

The WNBA announced today that it has hired Engelbert to be the league’s first-ever commissioner. She will take over on July 17, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. Engelbert succeeds Lisa Borders, who stepped down as WNBA president last October.

I’m not exactly sure why but Engelbert will be the first person to hold the title of WNBA commissioner, whereas the other four women who have led the league held the title of WNBA president. Maybe to be more in line with the NBA?

This seems like a really good landing spot for Engelbert, given her love of sports and, especially, basketball. She was a walk-on basketball player at Lehigh University and played under current Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw. As a senior in 1986, she captained Lehigh to an East Coast Conference title. Engelbert also played lacrosse at Lehigh and was a senior captain.

In a statement, Engelbert said:

“It is an absolute privilege to be joining the WNBA at such an exciting and important time in its history. I see tremendous opportunity to bolster visibility for the sport of women’s basketball, empower the players, and enhance fan engagement. I look forward to using my business expertise and passion for basketball to promote women in the game and beyond, and to working with the teams and world-class athletes to help grow this league into a thriving business.”

In addition, the WNBA posted the following video message from Engelbert on Twitter:

A message from Cathy Engelbert, the first-ever WNBA Commissioner 🗣 pic.twitter.com/Nbw7mW0MJW

— WNBA (@WNBA) May 15, 2019

Engelbert, a former chairman and CEO of Deloitte’s audit practice, Deloitte & Touche, was named CEO of Deloitte in March 2015, becoming the first woman CEO of a Big 4 firm in the U.S.

However, she was not nominated by the firm’s board of directors last year to serve a second four-year term as CEO. Current Deloitte & Touche Chairman and CEO Joe Ucuzoglu will take over as Deloitte CEO on June 2.

The post Outgoing Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert Is Going to Be Commissioner of the WNBA appeared first on Going Concern.

Summer internship season is fast approaching, as thousands of bright-eyed young men and women will soon flood accounting firms all over the country, hoping to not have their wills crushed and not screw up too badly so they receive a full-time offer of employment.

But what are these eager ladies and gents getting paid to toil in a Big 4 office? Well, as luck would have it, Glassdoor just came out with a list of the 25 highest-paying internships in the U.S. for 2019, and the Big 4 firms are on the back-end of the list.

Glassdoor compiled its ranking by using salary reviews reported by interns between March 1, 2018 and Feb. 28, 2019. In cases where companies have the same median monthly pay, the company with the greater number of salary reports received a higher rank.

According to Glassdoor, the Big 4 firm that pays its interns the most, with median monthly pay of $4,825, is …

Yep, the Black and Yellow, which ranked No. 17 overall. EY is followed by Deloitte at No. 19 with median monthly pay of $4,667. KPMG and PwC tied with median monthly pay of $4,500, but P. Dubs was ranked No. 21 and the House of Klynveld No. 22.

Here is the full list of the top 25 highest-paying internships:

Facebook: $8,000
Amazon: $7,725
Salesforce: $7,667
Google: $7,500
Microsoft: $7,250
Uber: $7,167
Bloomberg L.P.: $7,000
Capital One: $7,000
Apple: $6,667
Bank of America: $5,833
J.P. Morgan: $5,667
Goldman Sachs: $5,367
Viasat: $5,333
Visa Inc.: $5,167
Intel Corp.: $5,000
SAP: $4,833
EY: $4,825
Tesla: $4,667
Deloitte: $4,667
Cisco Systems: $4,667
PwC: $4,500
KPMG: $4,500
Genentech: $4,500
Dell: $4,333
Boeing: $4,167

Anyone who has a Big 4 summer internship lined up let us know in the comment section if these figures are somewhat accurate or not.

Congrats, and good luck!

Related articles:

The Definitive Guide to a Successful Public Accounting Summer Internship
2019 Accounting Internship Programs, Ranked

The post Which Big 4 Firm Is Paying Its Interns the Most? appeared first on Going Concern.

Long-winded personal anecdote incoming but I have to admit something to y’all, which I’m going to do because I trust you and I know you won’t make fun of me for it. And if you do, well, it’ll at least be funny. OK, here goes…

I don’t listen to podcasts.

I know, I know. I’m the last person on the planet to get on board with this podcast thing. I have zero excuses, my lazy ass could easily roll over in bed and tell Alexa to fire up whatever the latest thing is all you kids are raving about. But nah, just not into it. It’s not because I’m old either because my old-ass boyfriend who is significantly older than me figured out Stitcher so that’s no excuse. I dunno, I’d rather put on “Golden Girls” reruns in the background and endlessly scroll Reddit.

Anyway, enough about me until I go off on some tangent again. We’re talking podcasts, and this one should interest at least some of you.

.@AICPA has launched an official #CPAExam podcast, Next Stop: CPA. Through a wide range of interviews and discussions, hosts Mike and Lauren cover topics important to those who are sitting for the Exam or still considering the CPA license. Don't miss out! https://t.co/ve2U17xlTM pic.twitter.com/1lZwzcDggz

— NASBA (@NASBA) May 14, 2019

BAM. That’s good news, right? Between this and the CPA exam webcast they held a few weeks back, I feel like those gosh-darn Powers That Be are really trying to make sure candidates are informed. I’m sure a few greyhairs think candidates these days are a bunch of whiny millennial pussies who need everything handed to them because back in their day they had to walk uphill in the snow both ways to the testing center with nothing but a stone tablet to chisel on, but me personally I think this is a good thing.

Maybe it’s because that “talent shortage” we’re always hearing so much about is putting the squeeze on the AICPA to widen that CPA pipeline, but more likely it’s just that in this modern world with the entire world’s knowledge literally in our pockets at any given time, there’s absolutely no reason candidates shouldn’t have the information they need right at their fingertips. These aren’t state secrets we’re talking about, it’s just exam information.

Podcast meme

So yeah, check out the podcast here and let us know what you think. So far they’ve posted three episodes but we imagine there will be more to come. Hell, I’ve somehow been able to make a decade-and-then-some-long career out of writing about this shit and still haven’t run out of topics so surely there’s no shortage of things they can talk about.

That’s it, just wanted to let you know. Alexa, order beer.

The post News to Your Ears: The AICPA Now Has a CPA Exam Podcast appeared first on Going Concern.

Two internal auditor buddies got a starring role in an SEC litigation release after they were charged with insider trading for monkeying around with secret information about their respective employers.

Lloyd Schuman, a former senior internal auditor at Verso Corp., and Dane Janes, an internal auditor with Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc., agreed to pay a total of nearly $285,000 in penalties for their involvement in what the SEC said was “multiple instances” of insider trading and tipping by Schuman and tipping by Janes, in which Schuman made several thousands of dollars in illegal profits.

Neither guy admitted or denied the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

In fall 2013, Schuman learned about confidential plans that Verso, a publicly traded paper company then based in Memphis, was going to acquire a privately held paper company, NewPage Holdings Inc. In the weeks before Verso went public with the acquisition, Schuman purchased “an unusually large” amount of Verso shares, and tipped this material, nonpublic information to a close relative, who also purchased Verso shares.

By mid-December 2013, Verso stock comprised about 90% of Schuman’s portfolio, the largest amount of Verso stock that he had ever owned, according to the complaint.

As soon as the deal was announced on the morning of Jan. 6, 2014, Schuman pulled the trigger on all of his Verso shares, realizing more than $107,000 in profits. Schuman’s relative also sold his Verso shares, realizing more than $2,500 in profits.

During the time he was buying a ridiculous amount of Verso shares, Schuman exchanged text messages with his close friend, Janes, who he has known since 2000 when they both worked as internal auditors for the same company, about the pending Verso/NewPage acquisition. For example:

Schuman sent Janes a text message on January 2, 2014, asking “[d]id you or any of your people by [sic] VRS? 159k shares traded in first 30 min.” Janes responded “No. I haven’t mentioned to anyone.” Schuman replied, “[t]hen I would attribute it to evidence of something happening in the near future.”

Speaking of tipping, Janes gave Schuman three juicy ones by text and/or phone call in advance of three material, nonpublic announcements regarding Ashford Hospitality Trust and Ashford Hospitality Prime, two publicly traded real estate investment trusts.

January 2014 announcements that Ashford Hospitality Prime would issue 8 million additional shares of common stock.
April 8, 2014 announcement that Ashford Hospitality Trust would issue 7 million additional shares of common stock.
May 8, 2014 Ashford Hospitality Trust quarterly earnings release that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

For example, ahead of the quarterly earnings release, Janes texted Schuman to tell him that “good news was coming.”

Janes stated that he was trying to find out how good the news would be, but that he knew AHT would at least beat the estimates.

Schuman responded, “do I need to jump in AHT?” Five minutes later, Schuman placed an order to buy 4,000 shares of AHT at $10.27 per share, then sent Janes a text message updating him about the purchase, stating “Got 4K @ 10.27.”

Janes responded that he was not sure how much the share price would “pop” but that it may be up $0.50 to $1.50 per share within one to two days after the earnings release.

On the morning of May 8, 2014, Schuman purchased 2,000 more shares of AHT. After the market closed that day, AHT released a positive quarterly earnings report that exceeded analysts’ estimates for funds from operations by $0.05 per share. That evening, Schuman shared the news of the earnings release with Colleague 1 in a text message, stating “Ashford Hospitality Trust beats by $.05, beats on revenue.”

The next day AHT’s stock price rose 3.9 percent. Schuman sold the 6,000 AHT shares he had purchased in the preceding days, realizing a net profit of $1,547.

After trading on all of Janes’ tips, Schuman avoided $10,478 in losses and realized profits of $4,672, according to the SEC.

The SEC ordered Schuman to pay $122,574 in disgorgement, $21,341 in prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty of $125,134. Janes was ordered to pay a civil penalty of $15,150.

The post Two Internal Auditors Thought They Could Get Away with Insider Trading, LOL appeared first on Going Concern.

Does your accounting job have you trapped in an accrual world? Do you ever want to ditch it all and travel down a different career path?

You could go back to school to become an orthopedic surgeon, but then you’d have to re-learn the phases of mitosis. You could be an English teacher, but that would require figuring out whether a gerund is a part of speech or a made-up word created by the government to destroy children’s dreams. (A word that’s a verb and a noun? Right, and Neil Armstrong really landed on the moon.)

Or you could use the accounting and business skills you’ve already acquired to transition into a much more rewarding role.

That’s exactly what Advaion’s Pavan Satyaketu, a managing director, did when he left the Big 4—arguably at near the top of his field—to enter the world of advising jobs and become a leader at an advisory firm in 2004. Despite his initial success in accounting, the 20-something immigrant realized his passion lay elsewhere, and took a career gamble at a time when the Office Space “Bobs” and Dilbert were still accountant synonyms.

We recently caught up with Satyaketu and asked him about his start, career switch to advising jobs, path to success, and words of wisdom to those accountants looking to make a transition into more of an advisory role.

Adolescent to accountant

Going Concern: First off, tell us a little bit about your background. Where’d you grow up, and how’d you get into accounting?

Pavan Satyaketu: I grew up as one of five boys in a three-bedroom house in the West Indies. We were a working-class family. My father suggested an accounting path, as he knew it would be a career with high demand. I started my career at Price Waterhouse, as they offered tuition loans in a position that allowed me to work full time and go to school part time, nights, and weekends.

GC: Where’d you go from there?

Satyaketu: I eventually followed my parents to Fort Lauderdale—moving to Miami in the late 1990s to work at a large pharmaceutical company. I soon realized I couldn’t stay there if I wanted to build my career, so I decided to go big and moved to New York without a job. After cold-calling, I landed interviews at a number of firms and ultimately decided to join KPMG.

From the Big 4 to advising jobs

GC: You rose quickly through the Big 4 ranks, but ultimately left after 10 years. What prompted the switch to the world of advising jobs?

Satyaketu: I think by the end of 2002, I started to see a shift in what I was doing. While I loved the company and team I worked with, my work kept me focused on numbers and away from business operations altogether.

GC: And you knew then you were ready to move?

Satyaketu: In the summer of 2003, I went on vacation with my younger brothers, and I saw that my daughter was more comfortable with them than with me. I realized then that I couldn’t take on a lot of travel and long hours at the office and have quality time with my daughter at the same time. My grandfather and uncle both died in their early 50s, and I knew I didn’t want to wait until I got older to start enjoying life with her.

Does Pavan sound like the type of guy you’d like to work with? He works at an advisory firm, Advaion, which is currently hiring. Scroll to the bottom of this post to apply for an open advising position.

GC: How were you able to successfully make the transition from the Big 4 to advising jobs

Satyaketu: After a decade of watching and helping great companies—nationally and internationally—and seeing just how passionate people were with their work, I found that my view was only from the outside as an auditor. I wasn’t part of the team that was growing a company. I wanted to be part of the team and drive success instead of just being the auditor who gave them an audit opinion on their financials.

Advice to the future advising jobs seeker

GC: What advice would you give to someone working at the Big 4 or another firm who is looking to transition into something else?

Satyaketu: It all depends on what they are trying to transition into. The Big 4 has so many smart people, and because those people work with so many different clients, they develop a lot of skill sets they use daily—project management, interpersonal skills, critical thinking, and analytical skills, to name a few. I think they really need to sit down and evaluate their skill sets to see what they do well and see where they fit in. A lot of times those skill sets fit into an advisory role.

GC: What are some mistakes people make when trying to transition from a big accounting firm

Satyaketu: Knee-jerk reactions. When you encounter something you don’t like—be it financial regulations or something in life—our human nature tends to cause us to react a little extreme. That’s the worst thing we can do to ourselves and our careers. Fortunately, I got a call from someone who needed help to get financials together, and I realized I had a lot of other skill sets people valued as a resource. When we try to get away from something, doing the opposite to the extreme is not often a good thing, and it can result in a disservice to ourselves.

Advaion: The perfect place to transition from accounting to advising jobs

Does Satyaketu’s story sound familiar? Can you relate to his frustrations with accounting jobs? Maybe it’s time you followed his path and made the switch from accounting to an advisory career.

For more than a decade, Advaion has served as a trusted advisor for clients in several industries. The independent consulting firm’s staff is comprised primarily of former Big 4 business professionals—so if you’re currently working at one of the Big 4, you may be exactly the recruit Advaion is looking for.

At Advaion, you’ll provide your clients with the most up-to-date information related to regulatory, compliance, management, and technology trends. You’ll foster a relationship of trust with your clients, helping them make smarter financial decisions and grow their businesses.

If you’re still reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve decided you don’t want to go to medical school to learn the difference between anaphase A and anaphase B, and are looking to make the transition from accounting to advising jobs. And just like Satyaketu, if you possess the skills and drive to succeed, Advaion may be a great fit for you.

Click one of the links below to apply for open advising jobs at Advaion now.

Advising jobs in New York City and Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Financial Audit Consultant (New York City)

Financial Audit Consultant (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

The post He Made the American Dream Real: From Foreign Lands to Big 4 Auditor to a Leader at an Advisory Firm appeared first on Going Concern.

Not-so-good news today from the Associated Press:

United Airlines says it will cut about 100 accounting jobs in Houston in July and shift the work to a contractor.

The airline reported the layoffs in a letter this week to the Texas Workforce Commission. It did not identify the contractor that will handle accounting of revenue from passengers.

A United spokeswoman said Friday the airline is providing job-search help.

According to the ABC News affiliate in Houston, United employees were notified of the transition in July 2018 and that the airline has spent the past year providing career-assistance services, such as resume writing and interview skills, to those who will be laid off.

The post Layoff Watch ’19: United Airlines Is Axing 100 Accounting Jobs in Houston appeared first on Going Concern.

A year ago, our contributor Megan Lewczyk (what the hell happened to her, anyway? Megan, send a smoke signal if you’re OK) wrote a field guide to quitting your job in public accounting. Unlike many of the articles we pour our hearts and souls into around here, it was well-received, and even after all this time it still gets a ton of eyeballs on it. I’m no data expert but based on my intermediate knowledge of the delicate inner workings of the Google machine, I can only deduce that its popularity means a lot of you are seeking greener pastures. Hell, I don’t need Google Analytics to tell me that, the entire basis of this website is how shitty public accounting can be.

So one early Monday afternoon not too long ago, I must have had too much coffee because I came up with the bright idea on our weekly editorial conference call to launch a short series on how to quit your job in public accounting and, more importantly, set yourself up for opportunities moving forward. That last bit is the important part. You don’t need a drawn-out guide on how to quit, you’ve got that down (if anything, you definitely know what not to do when quitting your public accounting job). It’s what comes after that is always a little scary since you don’t always know where you’ll land.

Over the next couple weeks, we’re going to break down the process step by step, which if I’ve calculated this correctly and don’t get too drunk and forget the point in the meantime, will culminate in accepting that dream job offer. Or any job offer. Whatever, it’s a step-by-step guide, that’s the goal here.

To get started, we’re going to look at first steps once you’ve come to the realization that your inner monologue has gone from the occasional “man, this job sucks” to a never-ending stream of “if I don’t get out of this hellhole I’m going to lose my mind.” When exactly this happens varies for everyone; I distinctly remember when it happened in my last job, down to the day of the week and the exact task my supervisor was undertaking when I realized how punchable his face was. Here’s the thing: it’s best to start on this process before you reach the point of wanting to punch your colleagues. So if those feelings of angst are starting to eat away at you and your nightly habit of drinking the pain away is starting to eat into your budget, now is the best time to take the first step. No, not getting sober, fuck that step. We’re talking about working on your résumé.

You don’t even have to decide you’re going to leave to take this step, just buffing up your résumé can be a great stress-reliever while you’re fighting back the urge to pour hot coffee on that chick in the cube next to you who never shuts up and draws out her S sounds too long like a snake with a lisp. Working on your résumé will not only distract you from the innumerable annoying things going down around you at all times, it’s also a necessary step if you’re going to progress through this process of getting the hell out of there.

For some people, résumé writing comes easy but I’m the first to admit: I’m a professional writer as well as a confirmed narcissist and even I struggle with this sometimes. So don’t be afraid to hire a service to do this for you, or at least to critique your work and offer suggestions. Or you can take the alternate cheaper route and ask Reddit to dissect your life’s work, people do that on /r/accounting all the time. Or hell, do both. Whatever, this isn’t an exact science.

If you’re still lost on this step, here’s some old ass advice from us on writing a grown-up résumé, whether you’re early in your career or looking to change your career trajectory in accounting. Here are some do’s and don’ts from that post if you’re too lazy (or busy working on your résumé) to click through:

DO not use run-on sentences or paragraphs.
DO list your performance rankings.
DO highlight accomplishments.
DO NOT use firm-specific acronyms.
DO NOT refer to yourself with “I” or “me.” This is your résumé.
DO list your clients as they are relevant to the employers you are applying to. If you are paranoid about this, use a description of your client.
DO NOT be paranoid – your clients will be discussed in interviews.
DO keep your punctuation consistent; end every bullet point with a period or do not – just don’t mix and match.
DO not use present tense when describing your previous employer experience: use past tense grammar.

If you’ve timed things correctly, you’ll have some time to work on this first step before moving on to the next: the job search. Question is, do you give notice first and then look? Or look, get an offer, and then jump? We’ll visit that in next week’s edition of Get Me the F*ck Out of Here. In the meantime, crack open GDocs and get to polishing up the turds you’ve collected over the last however many years or months of your miserable existence at your current gig. You got this.

The post Get Me the F*ck Out of Here: First Steps For Quitting Your Job in Public Accounting appeared first on Going Concern.

A look at the best of the worst accountant malfeasance around the globe over the past week or so.

British accountant, 47, faces the death penalty in the Philippines ‘after being caught with meth in a drugs raid’ [Daily Mail]
Philip Joseph was in a flat with two locals when police burst through the door in Manila at around 5 p.m. on May 13.

Officers said they found Joseph, 47, with a woman, Josephine Olayao, 38, and Rodolfo del Rosario, 42, a tuk tuk rider, preparing sachets of methamphetamine. Joseph faces charges of possession and dealing, which carries a maximum punishment of the death sentence or a life sentence.

If found guilty of possession, Joseph faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum life term.

Joseph had moved to the Philippines and was working in the financial sector as an accountant and legal collections manager.

U.S. Secret Service: Jacksonville accountant stole $12 million from clients before he died [Florida Times-Union]
A complaint filed by the federal government last week alleged that Raymond Lee Hutchins, CPA, had two methods of stealing money from three prominent clients.

For the first method, he overpaid the income taxes for one client, and when the government would send back the money, he deposited it into accounts he had opened in his client’s name, the complaint said. From 2010 to 2015, he stole about $6.4 million this way, the complaint said.

For the second method, he stole more directly from two clients, laundering the money through a series of accounts, according to the complaint. For the first client in this second method, he stole $2.6 million after her death, the complaint said. Two weeks before the client’s death, he set up a bank account in her name and then funneled some of the money through that account on the day of her death, the complaint said.

For the last client, he stole $2.9 million from January 2011 until April 2016, the complaint said, by laundering funds from three trusts through various accounts.

Hutchins, 58, and his wife died in an apparent boating accident in Camden County, GA, in 2016. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said alcohol, inexperience, and bad weather contributed to their deaths.

Accountant indicted in bank fraud case [The Herald-Dispatch]
Kimberly Price, an accountant in Huntington, WV, has been federally indicted more than two years after she was accused of embezzling more than $1 million from a client’s account.

Price, 59, was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on 28 counts of bank fraud allegedly committed during her time as a staff accountant at the Huntington-based firm Hess, Stewart and Campbell PLLC.

Price was originally arrested in January 2016 and charged with more than 900 counts of embezzlement, forgery, and uttering in Cabell County after the executor in charge of the trust for Elizabeth Caldwell, a Huntington woman who died in the fall of 2015, went to the West Virginia State Police after noticing the account was lower than expected.

According to a criminal complaint, Price “paid off (a) vehicle, went on trips, helped her son start a business, paid off her (son’s) student loans, supported her boyfriend and supported her gambling habit.”

Accountant for ‘ugly models’ agency fleeced firm out of more than £21,000, court hears [Evening Standard]
Charlotte Harris, an accountant for Ugly Enterprises Ltd., which manages the Ugly Models agency, stole more than £21,000 by forging her boss’s signature in a bid to clear her debts.

Harris, 31, took money meant to be paid to models by writing checks to herself and siphoning off funds into her mother’s bank account.

An audit revealed 16 bank transfers from Ugly Enterprises into Harris’s account made using a card reader she was not authorized to use.

Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC told her she had left Ugly Models with a “tarnished reputation” thanks to the fraud, which totaled £21,071. He ordered that she repay the money in £200 monthly installments.

Harris admitted to two counts of fraud by abuse of position. She was also sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years.

East Brunswick CPA sentenced to prison for filing false tax return [Bridgewater Courier News]
Amit Govil, a CPA in New Brunswick, NJ, who operated a business in East Brunswick, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for underreporting his income on his personal tax return, avoiding paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes.

Govil, 58, who operated P&G Associates, which provides internal audit and risk management services to community banks, admitted that for the tax year 2010, he underreported and failed to report the gross receipts or sales of P&G Associates on Schedule C of his personal tax return, avoiding more than $672,000 in taxes.

In addition to the prison term, Govil was sentenced to one year of supervised release.

Police: Des Moines accountant stole more than $200,000 from Open Bible Churches over a decade [Des Moines Register]
Michelene Diane Kinning wrote unauthorized checks to herself while an accountant at Open Bible Churches’ denominational headquarters beginning in 2010 and lasting through 2018, authorities said.

She faces three charges of first-degree theft—each requiring at least $10,000 in alleged theft—and one charge of second-degree theft, which involves thefts valued between $1,000 and $9,999.

Kinning, 54, is accused of writing herself more than $170,000 in unauthorized checks between 2010 and 2016, and writing additional checks adding up to more than $20,000 over the following two years.

The post Accountants Behaving Badly: Busted with Meth, Stealing From Clients, Bank Fraud appeared first on Going Concern.

For weeks, the rags in the U.K. have speculated about which midtier firm would win the battle to audit Goldman Sachs’ London-based European operations, a job PwC has held for what seems like a gazillion years. Would it be Grant Thornton? Would it be BDO, which became the fifth-largest firm in the U.K. earlier this year after its merger with Moore Stephens was finalized? Could it possibly be Mazars?

Well, the winner of the prestigious Goldman Sachs International engagement was announced earlier today, and Mazars did indeed get the gig. Not bad for the eighth-largest accounting firm by revenue in the U.K.

Reuters reported:

The move comes as British lawmakers and regulators are pushing to weaken the grip of PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG, the so-called Big Four accounting firms that dominate audits of top companies in Britain.

A Mazars spokesman confirmed that it would be conducting Goldman Sachs International’s European audit, which is focused on activities in Britain and Germany.

This is actually pretty big news across the pond today because Goldman Sachs will be the first large bank in the U.K. that will not have one of the Big 4 auditing its books. Mazars will take over as auditor in 2021.

European Union rules now require listed companies, as well as the European operations of a few major multinationals—which include Goldman Sachs—to appoint a new auditor every 20 years.

The Big 4 currently audits a whopping 98% of all FTSE 350 companies in the U.K., which is the reason why regulators want that shit to end. As far as we know, Deloitte and EY were in play for the Goldman Sachs International gig. So was KPMG, but you knew Goldman Sachs wanted KPMG nowhere near its books. And Grant Thornton gave up bidding for new audit work at the largest U.K. companies in March 2018.

So, good for Mazars. And don’t worry, P. Dubsteppers: PwC, which has audited Goldman Sachs International since 1926, will continue to audit Goldman’s operations outside of Europe.

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