4 ms·

Good work by their auditors PWC on not finding this back in 2019. Amazes me they got away with it

nickff 4y ago
Auditors almost never find any fraud, and the SEC only rarely detects it on its own. Almost all cases of investor deception are revealed by short-sellers or insiders.
- arminiusreturns 4y ago
  Sure would be nice to know who shorted all those airline stocks right before 9/11...
  - usednet 4y ago
    Shh… you’re not allowed to talk about that stuff.
jmoak3 4y ago
You should see what KPMG signed off for GE 15 years or so ago Click any of the links within https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/24/investing/ge-annual-meeting-kpmg-accounting/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/24/investing/ge-annual-meeting... I wonder if PWC missed it by design, but then again I've been pessimistic about stuff like this after reading Lights Out, the book on the GE failure.
- q7xvh97o2pDhNrh 4y ago
  Thanks for name-dropping that book. I've always wondered what exactly happened to GE, and I love history books that speak to the modern corporate era we inhabit. My personal favorites of the genre are Titan (about Rockefeller and Standard Oil), The Organization Man (an anthropological study of the "company man" archetype from post-WW2 America), and Shoe Dog (much lighter reading than the other two, and a great read about the founding of Nike). Anyway, I just grabbed a copy. More history book recommendations welcome!
  - boeingUH60 4y ago
    Barefoot to Billionaire by industrialist Jon Huntsman is also a good one.
Accujack 4y ago
Speaking as a former employee of a Fortune 100 company for who PWC provides services, PWC is pretty thoroughly "captured" by their clients... they will never report things like Sarbanes-Oxley issues even if they're hit over the head with them... because they're quite used to not finding any problems at this point.
Sylamore 4y ago
Ironically, it was PWC that came in after Deloitte and reported accounting irregularities to the board of Royal Ahold back in 2003 that lead to one of Europe's largest accounting scandals: https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-144.htm https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-144.htm KPMG was the auditors of USF before they were bought by Ahold, and their service period spans the window of when the accounting issues existed, so you have KPMG and Deloitte finally called out by PWC but that was almost 20 years ago.

Auditors almost never find any fraud, and the SEC only rarely detects it on its own. Almost all cases of investor deception are revealed by short-sellers or insiders.

arminiusreturns 4y ago
Sure would be nice to know who shorted all those airline stocks right before 9/11...
- usednet 4y ago
  Shh… you’re not allowed to talk about that stuff.

jmoak3 4y ago

You should see what KPMG signed off for GE 15 years or so ago Click any of the links within https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/24/investing/ge-annual-meeting-kpmg-accounting/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/24/investing/ge-annual-meeting... I wonder if PWC missed it by design, but then again I've been pessimistic about stuff like this after reading Lights Out, the book on the GE failure.

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh 4y ago
Thanks for name-dropping that book. I've always wondered what exactly happened to GE, and I love history books that speak to the modern corporate era we inhabit. My personal favorites of the genre are Titan (about Rockefeller and Standard Oil), The Organization Man (an anthropological study of the "company man" archetype from post-WW2 America), and Shoe Dog (much lighter reading than the other two, and a great read about the founding of Nike). Anyway, I just grabbed a copy. More history book recommendations welcome!
- boeingUH60 4y ago
  Barefoot to Billionaire by industrialist Jon Huntsman is also a good one.

Accujack 4y ago

Speaking as a former employee of a Fortune 100 company for who PWC provides services, PWC is pretty thoroughly "captured" by their clients... they will never report things like Sarbanes-Oxley issues even if they're hit over the head with them... because they're quite used to not finding any problems at this point.

Sylamore 4y ago

Ironically, it was PWC that came in after Deloitte and reported accounting irregularities to the board of Royal Ahold back in 2003 that lead to one of Europe's largest accounting scandals: https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-144.htm https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-144.htm KPMG was the auditors of USF before they were bought by Ahold, and their service period spans the window of when the accounting issues existed, so you have KPMG and Deloitte finally called out by PWC but that was almost 20 years ago.