The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it is extending the filing periods covered by its previously enacted conditional reporting relief for certain public company filing obligations under the federal securities laws, and that it is also extending regulatory relief previously provided to funds and investment advisers whose operations may Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Ohio-based pharmaceutical company Cardinal Health has agreed to pay more than $8 million to resolve charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). According to the SEC’s order, Cardinal’s internal Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against alcohol producer Diageo plc for failing to disclose its knowledge of high-pressure sales tactics to ship excess products to distributors to meet internal sales targets at its North American distributors. Diageo has agreed to pay $5 million to settle the enforcement action. Read More
Tucked inside the Trump Administration’s $4.8 Trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2021, released last week, is a plan that has caught the eye of Big Four auditors and internal auditors as well: The White House has proposed to merge the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board into the Securities and Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed amendments to securities regulations that, if passed, would change the requirements for disclosing financial information. It says the changes would modernize, simplify, and enhance some financial disclosure requirements in Regulation S-K. The proposed changes would also require some new disclosures. In a statement, Read More
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
A professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School is warning that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposal to exempt smaller companies from having to comply with a key provision of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) could do more harm than good. The SEC proposed in May to exempt relatively Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed insider trading charges against Martha Patricia Bustos, a former accountant at Illumina Inc. and a certified public accountant, and her close friend, Donald Blakstad, whom Bustos allegedly illegally tipped with confidential information in advance of her company’s quarterly performance announcements. The alleged insider trading Read More
Big Four audit firm KPMG LLP will pay $50 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges in the KPMG cheating scandal. The SEC had alleged that the firm altered past audit work after receiving stolen information about inspections of the firm that would be conducted by the Public Company Read More
Perhaps the Securities and Exchange Commission is mistaking Internal Audit Awareness Month with Internal Audit Malfeasance Awareness Month. Last Thursday the SEC filed insider trading charges against two internal auditors for allegedly sharing tips that they got from their respective employers. On the same day, the SEC announced that the Read More
