Accounting fraud Archives - Corruption, Crime & Compliance

11 Oct, 2022

VMware pays SEC $8 Million for Misleading Financial Reporting

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s bread-and-butter enforcement actions focus on accounting fraud. The SEC has a long history in uncovering fraudulent financial reporting schemes. In the early 2000s, Wall Street was shaken by a number of scandals involving financial reporting fraud which eventually resulted in passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This Act transformed the auditing profession and to this day is the most important reform...

General

10 Dec, 2018

The Growing Problem of Corporate Fraud (Part I of III)

For the love of money is the root of all evil – 1 Timothy 6:10, King James Version, The Bible Corporate bribery requires money. How is that for something obvious. Companies face a variety of threats – one enduring threat is the risk of fraud or theft. Unfortunately, employee fraud is all too common. PWC’s 2018 Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey reported that “only...

General

9 Jun, 2016

The SEC’s Return to Accounting Fraud Enforcement

Just like the ups and downs of the business cycle, SEC enforcement of accounting fraud cases follow an up and down trend as well. For example, during the financial crisis, SEC enforcement of accounting fraud cases took a back seat to enforcement actions surrounding disclosure and conflicts of interest in relation to the financial meltdown. The SEC, in the last two years, has returned to...

General

3 Apr, 2016

The Demise of Valeant Pharmaceuticals: A Case Study in Rotten Culture and Business Ethics

Showing my age again, Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run included a hilarious scene when Woody’s parents wearing Groucho Marx glasses talk about their criminal son (Woody/Virgil Starkwell), his dad exclaimed “He’s rotten, he is a gangster.” See clip here. Well, the story of Valeant Pharmaceuticals is a familiar one of corporate greed and misconduct, based on a “rotten” tone at the top and...