Former New York State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno was found guilty on federal corruption charges by a jury on Monday. Over the course of the three-week trial, prosecutors argued that Bruno, a Republican, improperly used his position in the State Senate to enrich himself.
[...]A single mother of two, making $10 an hour at Supercuts, was audited by the IRS for making too little money. The issue, you see, was that, according to the IRS’s calculations, it takes at least $36,000 to support two kids in Seattle, where she and her family [...]
How much independence is too much for the PCAOB? The Supreme Court will take up that question on D-Day, Dec. 7. The SEC appoints board members to the auditing industry’s regulator, but two groups involved in the litigation maintain that the lack of presidential control over the PCAOB makes the [...]
New York State Senator Hiram Monserrate (D – Queens) will not serve jail time for having slashing his girlfriend’s face with a broken glass, having been sentenced, instead, to three years probation and 250 hours of community service.
[...]The NYSSCPA's newest news venture, CPA.Blog, was named a "superstar finance blogger" by the Web site BloggingSuits.com, which states as its mission "helping accounting and finance professionals navigate blogging and social media."
The nominating article notes that "State CPA societies have been extremely slow to embrace [...]
Part of the legislation that Gov. David A. Paterson signed into law on Friday that closes some of the state's $3.2 billion budget gap, also includes an exemption from the state's new tax preparer registration requirement for out-of-state CPAs.
A40023/S66023 defines a "tax preparer" as an individual [...]
Bloomberg is reporting that Securities and Exchange Chair Mary Schapiro is close to a decision in picking the new chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Kurt Schacht, managing director of the CFA Institute's Centre for Financial Market Integrity, is under consideration to lead the board, according to' [...]
Did you know that a director from Goldman Sachs (with ownership of company stock) was also serving as a director of the New York Federal Reserve as it funneled bailout funds to Wall Street at the height of the financial crisis?
Appalled? Well, at least it won't happen again: that loophole was closed' [...]
The IRS, in conjunction with the Treasury, has released its "priority guidance plan" of 315 projects to be completed over a twelve-month period, from July 2009 through June 2010. "This year’s plan will address a variety of issues, including recent legislation, the current economic environment, and important international [...]
Gov. David A. Paterson introduced two pieces of emergency legislation Tuesday--one that would close a $3.2 billion current fiscal year budget gap and another that would grant him the power to make those changes himself in case legislators are "afraid of political consequences they will face if they approve [the] [...]
New reports show that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the institution responsible for bailing out troubled financial institutions so as to avoid nasty scenes like this one, may have overexerted itself during the latest financial crisis. According to the government corporation’s quarterly bank profile, a snapshot of the [...]
The holiday season presents an opportunity for NYSSCPA chapters to give back to the community. In the Suffolk chapter, that means toys—by the truckload. The Suffolk Young CPAs Committee is in the midst of its 15th annual [...] Most businesses may use losses incurred during the economic downturn to reduce income from prior tax years, under a revenue procedure issued today by the IRS.
[...]Famed financial titan Goldman Sachs, one of the few Wall Street players to come out of the financial crisis relatively well, may have realized, perhaps, that defending billions of dollars in bonuses, all while saying you’re doing God’s work, might not be the best way to endear [...]
President Barack Obama has established by executive order an interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to strengthen efforts to combat financial crime, according to an announcement from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The Department of Justice will lead the task force; the Department of Treasury, the U.S. Department [...]
The state’s public authorities will get stricter oversight than ever under a measure that the state Assembly approved yesterday.
The measure would require greater disclosure at approximately 700 state authorities, which, despite their enormous role in government, have been relatively free to operate without the scrutiny that [...]
Attention tax professionals: the IRS will host a panel of practitioners who will discuss e-filing during a free webinar Nov. 18. The hour-long program will air three times: 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
[...]The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged two computer programmers for their role in helping convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard L. Madoff cover up his vast fraud for more than 15 years.
The SEC alleges in its complaint that Jerome O'Hara of Malverne, N.Y., and George Perez of' [...]
The AICPA filed a has filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction barring the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from applying its so-called "Red Flags Rule" to CPAs.
“We do not believe that there is any reasonably foreseeable risk of identity theft when CPA clients are billed for services rendered,” [...]
A jury in a Brooklyn Federal District Court on Tuesday found two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers not guilty of fraud charges, according to the New York Times.
[...]The IRS has not maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of Sept. 30, and therefore did not provide reasonable assurance that losses and misstatements material to its financial statements would be prevented, or detected and corrected in a timely manner, the Government Accountabilty [...]
A new proposal for financial regulatory reform was released today by Senator Christopher Dodd, who proposed creating a single U.S. bank regulator, stripping oversight authority from the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, would eliminate the Office [...]
Three NYSSCPA members are now serving on the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Anthony S. Kendall was newly appointed to the panel, where he joins Immediate Past President Sharon Sabba Fierstein and Wayne A. Kolins, who was reappointed.
[...]The corruption trial of former State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno kicked off this week, with both sides making opening statements that "presented vastly differing views" of his conduct, the New York Times reported.
[...]New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corporation, the world’s largest maker of computer microprocessors. The suit charges that Intel violated state and federal anti-monopoly laws by engaging in a worldwide, systematic campaign of illegal conduct in order to [...]
The Republican Party in New Jersey and Virginia won handily over their Democratic opponents in last night’s elections while losing a House seat in a surprise upset. In New York City, meanwhile, Mayor Michael Bloomberg retained control of the city in a hard fought election battle, winning by a margin [...]
Dow Jones newswires interviewed Lou Grumet, NYSSCPA executive director, following the announcement that Bernard Madoff’s auditor David Friehling pleaded guilty.
[...]
It's official, according to several news sources: The long-time outside accountant to Bernard Madoff has pleaded guilty to securities fraud.
' [...]It’s one thing for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to be criticized by its own inspector general or the news media -- it’s kind of what they’re there for, after all. You live, you learn, you reorganize.
[...]With year-end approaching (only 60 days to go!), taxes are the talk of the town -- and who is the media looking to for advice?
NYSSCPA members, of course!
FOX Business News talked to both Scott Cheslowitz and Alan Straus in two separate segments focused on taxes, both available on [...]
Bernard Madoff's longtime auditor, David G. Friehling, is expected to plead guilty next week in a cooperation deal.
Prosecutors reportedly wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that Friehling was expected to plead guilty at a conference on Tuesday and said that victims of Madoff's multibillion-dollar [...]
David A. Lifson, past Society president and chair of its Tax Reform Committee, has received the 2009 Arthur J. Dixon Memorial Award from the Tax Division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the accounting profession's highest award in the area of taxation. The annual award memorializes Arthur J.' [...]
The IRS' Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee (IRPAC) has released the advisory group’s 2009 recommendations on a wide range of tax administration issues.
' [...]In honor of Halloween, we present succession-planning horror stories. For more on succession planning, check out this Wednesday’s Practice Management Conference, featuring a panel of partners from small, mid-size and large firms sharing their succession-planning expertise, moderated by member Robert Fligel.
Vincent Price may have inspired these creepy tales…but are [...]
Executives at corporations that are taking a significant amount of taxpayer money will see their compensation slashed, the Obama administration’s pay czar announced today. The 25 highest paid employees at each of seven firms receiving government aid—AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, General Motors Co., GMAC Inc., Chrysler Group LLC and [...]
Victims of disgraced financier Bernie Madoff’s multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme are suing the U.K. branch of Big 4 accounting firm KPMG, alleging that auditors for the jailed billionaire’s financial operations failed to notice or ignored ample evidence of financial misconduct, making them, according to the complaint, [...]
Apple Computers, the grammatically incorrect maker of innumerable products beginning with a lowercase ‘i', reported record fourth quarter earnings yesterday, its report to the shareholders showing a 47 percent earnings increase, which some have attributed to rising sales in products like the iPhone and iMac.
' [...]Legislation regulating over-the-counter derivatives, the financial product largely seen as being at least partially responsible for sparking off the current financial crisis, passed the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday with a 43-27 vote that fell largely along partisan lines.
[...]The new Form 990 got you down? The IRS wants to put a smile back on your face with a series of videos and a theoretical case study intended to demystify the required filing for exempt orgs.
[...]
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