More examples of accounting fraud

[tw]

from Wall Street Journal of 18 Mar 2004 page A4 Medicare Actuary Reveals E-Mail Warning
Medicare's chief actuary was warned last year that he could be accused of "insubordination" if he shared information with Congress about a White House backed prescription drug bill without the approval of his politically appointed superiors, according to e-mails he has made public.
The June 20 directive to Medicare actuary Richard Foster came in an e-mail from the top aide to Thomas Scully, then the administrator for the health-care program. "Work up numbers and share them with Tom Scully only. NO ONE ELSE" reads the message from Jeffery Flick, the last portion in a bold faced capital letters. A second warning, also in boldface, follows in the same message: "The consequences for insubordination are extremely severe."

What else is new? This administration outrightly misrepresented facts to justify an invasion of Iraq - going so far as to even 'out' a CIA agent. Routinely perverted science for political agenda as even the Union of Concerned Scientists have recently stated - bluntly. Even undermined the Oslo Accords - part of a program to eliminate anything by Clinton.

Of course Arthur Andersen openly cooked the books for so many companies that also contributed to the George Jr bribery fund. Where is prosecution of top Arthur Andersen executives who cooked those books? It continues beyond Arthur Andersen. KPMG has a long list of cooking books - MCI Worldcom and Xerox - as well as misrrepresenting financial products to advance those many companies at the expense of small investors. KPMG, Doulouth & Touth, etc all are not even a subject of investigation having so strongly contributed to the George Jr bribery fund. Cook the Medicare books? What else is new?

Wall Street Journal even prints a copy of the memo entitled Re: Congressional Requests. How dare members of the executive branch tell the truth to Congress. This memo was in direct response to three requests from the House Ways and Means Committee for information. In the very first days of the George Jr administration, loyalty was explicitly commanded as most important. More important than honesty. We now know, repeatedly, that this administration was telling the truth when loyalty would come before all else - as was also demanded by the Nixon Administration.

BTW, what do those Medicare numbers expose? That the George Jr Medicare bill will cause massive - potentially destructive - deficits. Reminds me of a current credit card commercial - its not my money.

[Beestie]

Of course Arthur Andersen openly cooked the books for so many companies that also contributed to the George Jr bribery fund. Where is prosecution of top Arthur Andersen executives who cooked those books?

Of course, it was the Clinton administration that, in exchange for a bundle of DNC soft money, changed the long-standing rule that a firm's accountant could NOT also serve as a firm's managing consultant. This breach has led to an unresolvable conflict of interest that is at the root of many of the corporate scandals we have seen since Clinton allowed the rule change. The conflict makes it extremely difficult for an accounting firm to give an unfavorable opinion of a company's financials since, to do so, would almost certainly cost the accounting firm the managment consulting contracts that they have with that firm. This institutional bribery was never possible before Clinton changed the rules. And these scandals didn't start on Jan 4, 2000, either - the seeds were sown years before. To blame this on Bush is as partisan as it is groundless.

When accounting firms can ONLY serve as a firm's accountant and not have access to all their other business the conflict of interest will vanish and the public will start getting some honest opinions about their clients' financials.

[Undertoad]

Most of that is going away. All the accounting firms have split off their consulting pieces. That's why you have things like Bearing Point which was formerly KPMG. BTW my five months at KPMG consulting, pre-split, were the five worst months of my life. A lot of very competent people... a very power-hungry, money-hungry organization with no respect for anyone.

[kerosene]

Originally posted by Undertoad
A lot of very competent people... a very power-hungry, money-hungry organization with no respect for anyone.

This sounds far too familiar for comfort.

[godwulf]

Quite honestly, accounting and economics puts me right to sleep - but even I can see that the bottom line in this story is not who started what policy when, but the fact that the Bush administration - separate and apart from whether any previous administration may have done something similar - is intent on using the power of the U.S. Presidency and of the entire federal bureaucracy to reward its corporate backers, lie whenever, wherever, and to whomever it is necessary, and punish those who dare to shine the light on their true motives and behind-the-scenes activities.

When any government agent, office holder or contract employee is threatened with any sanction, however small, for simply telling the truth, it should be a criminal offense, punishable by imprisonment and a permanent ban on future government employment at any level.

[Undertoad]

Partisanship is superstition.

[godwulf]

Right. And Soylent Green is people.

[xoxoxoBruce]

When accounting firms can ONLY serve as a firm's accountant and not have access to all their other business the conflict of interest will vanish and the public will start getting some honest opinions about their clients' financials.

And those honest opinions won't put their accounting contracts in jeopardy, right?

[tw]

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
And those honest opinions won't put their accounting contracts in jeopardy, right?

Why be honest? There is no punishment for cooking the books. Even all the way back to book cooking of Waste Management - no penalty. And when Clinton's SEC tried to get money from Congress to fix that problem, Sen Billy Tauzen of LA and something like six other major Republican Senators outright threatened to eliminate all SEC funds.

In Washington, no lawyers are paid less than SEC lawyers. The Congressional and now administration 'powers that be' want it that way. When congress offered to triple the SEC Budget, the previous SEC Commissoner Harvey Pitts refused to accept the offer. As a result, the average job experience of an SEC lawyer is a pathetic three years. This is the organistaion that will force honesty in accounting? God save the Queen (the QE II) first.

Xerox was on the verge of bankruptcy. An honest accounting report would have made it obvious. But instead the president of Xerox called the head of KPMG and had accounting report changed. Who went to jail? No one here is even subject of an investigation. But since Martha Stewart did not contribute to the Republican party ... well, justice may be blind but the hand can still feel campaign bribery funds. Accounting will only be as honest as the Federal government. Point finger at the current administatraion that cannot even be honest about Medicare funding - let alone about weapons of mass destruction.

[Undertoad]

No punishment, that is, except the end of your entire firm and the disgrace of the entire industry. Anderson did get what was coming to them although I'm sure most of their accountants just landed at other firms getting the former Anderson clients.

[tw]

Originally posted by Undertoad
No punishment, that is, except the end of your entire firm and the disgrace of the entire industry. Anderson did get what was coming to them although I'm sure most of their accountants just landed at other firms getting the former Anderson clients.

Arthur Andersen was blamed on 15 Jun 2002 for Enron fraud. It is still in business as its accounts are transferred to other accounting firms. Andersen was also involved in previous major frauds but not prosecuted - Sunbeam, Waste Management, Asia Pulp and Paper, and the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, among others. Many divisions were spun off (ie Accenture) or sold to other accounting firms (ie Ernst and Young). IOW their partners - the people ultimately resonsible - did not lose everything.

In the meantime, all five major accounting firms (PricewaterhouseCooper, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and Deloitte & Touche) are accused of fraud. Only Andersen was prosecuted because Enron and MCI Worldcom (both Andersen accounts) were just too big to ignore and so easy to prosecute. Fraud was that openly practiced.