CFOs know not all prospects are what they claim to be. Potential clients will stretch the truth to get a line of credit that’s bigger than what they’re worth. The risks of fraud are surging: 44% of credit managers say they’re seeing a rise in fraud by would-be customers, according to the National Association of […]
Accounting firms face tougher fiduciary duties as the result of three new federal rules. The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) approved guidelines written by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the commission’s Sarbanes-Oxley compliance arm. Employees of accounting firms and independent contractors can now be held liable if they “negligently, directly and substantially contribute […]
Twenty-six financial firms are on the hook for $392.75 million in fines for securities recordkeeping violations. Several of the brokers, dealers and investment advisers made themselves a target by not keeping records of their communications. “Off-channel” communication enforcement efforts are up under the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). The feds stressed the need for greater […]
The list of fraudulent brokerages, securities firms and even financial regulators just keeps getting longer. Hundreds, potentially thousands, of scam artists are on the prowl, looking to pick the pockets of investors who don’t double check a company’s on the up and up. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the names of scammers […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can no longer deny a party charged with securities fraud to a jury trial in a federal court. The Supreme Court just curtailed SEC internal enforcement established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. Critics allege the SEC ramped up enforcement in recent years because its chances of winning cases in-house […]
Did you hear about the Snowflake hack? Snowflake is a cloud computing company that got blasted by a series of attacks earlier this spring. Snowflake clients ended up taking most of the shrapnel. Snowflake client Ticketmaster estimates 560 million customer records were stolen/copied. The threat actors (TAs) who breached Snowflake may be responsible for another […]
Any business owner who paid employee salaries or health benefits during COVID-19 restrictions will be waiting a while longer for a tax credit. The IRS is wading through tens of thousands of what it believes are “suspect” claims. The Service is continuing a moratorium on Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims it enacted last September. Anywhere […]
Extortion attempts such as ransomware attacks are on the rise again. Companies may want to consider cyber insurance policies to protect themselves. Client companies insured by Marsh reported a record number of cyber extortion attempts in 2023, roughly 65% more than in 2022. Marsh posits that cyber crooks were scrambling in 2022 due to “a […]
Is there a single business in the U.S. that’s resisted raising prices since early 2020? Good luck finding one. But there’s a fine line between passing along higher costs of doing business to the customer, and “fixing” prices. Case in point: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers conducted a pre-dawn raid of Cortland Management in […]
