When the Securities and Exchange Commission announced last week that it was settling charges against printing and graphics company Quad/Graphics Inc., it cited multiple internal audit and compliance failures as contributing factors in securities law and bribery violations by the company. The Wisconsin-based digital and print marketing provider has agreed Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Herbalife Nutrition—a direct selling company with operations in over 90 countries— has agreed to pay $20 million to settle charges that it made false and misleading statements about its China business model in numerous U.S. regulatory filings over a six-year period. According Read More
A new report finds that companies are making changes to financial disclosures, conducting audit “dry runs,” and even improving and adding new controls ahead of a new regulation that will require audit firms to disclose financial reporting issues that cause concern for auditors, known as “critical audit matters” or CAMs. Read More
Companies are struggling to keep their networks secure, particularly when they involve cloud computing, but an emerging technology—machine learning—could provide some help to eliminate unauthorized communication in your cloud. One of the biggest challenges of managing network security is understanding the environment: What assets are present? How are they communicating? Read More
A new study finds that companies are increasingly putting internal audit in charge of Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) internal controls compliance, rather than departments such as financial reporting or legal. The survey, conducted by the SOX & Internal Controls Professionals Group, finds that 46 percent of respondents report that internal audit Read More
The University of Texas School of Law is working to improve its financial oversight and controls after an internal audit found that an ex-facilities employee committed a nearly $1.6 million fraud. Former facilities director Jason Shoumaker was indicted last year on charges of theft, money laundering, and abusing his official Read More
A new academic study is calling into question a rule enacted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board that requires audit firms to disclose the name of the lead engagement partner who oversaw the audit. The regulation is known as Rule 3211 and took effect in January 2017. The idea Read More
Former KPMG partner, David Middendorf, was sentenced this week to a year and a day in prison for his role in a fraudulent scheme to acquire a regulator’s confidential plans in an attempt to get a leg up on audit firm inspections. The ex-KPMG exec was also sentenced to three Read More
Christina Murray, chief internal audit and global compliance at Nissan Motor Corp., resigned abruptly last week, after leading an investigation into improper compensation practices and other wrongdoing at the automaker. Reports indicate that Murray resigned in frustration when the results of the investigation led to the ouster of only a Read More
Ever wonder why incidents of fraud, wrongdoing, and other calamities in various forms continue at organizations year after year, decade after decade, and even seem to be increasing in frequency? Inevitably, after such crises someone asks, “Where were the auditors?” As much as I hate to admit it, the answer Read More
