Sunday, August 23, 2009

SEC, as the Jokester

"Take-Two Interactive Software's former chief lawyer and former chief accounting officer settled a civil complaint with the US [SEC] over alleged improper backdating of stock options. ... Pattiu Tay, the videogame maker's controller from 1998 to 2002 and its cheif accounting officer from 2002 to 2006, will pay a civil penalty of $125,000 and agreed to a permanent injuction, Mr. [Richard] Simpson said. Ms. Tay and Mr. [Kenneth] Selterman neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing as part of the settlements", my emphasis, Chad Bray at the WSJ, 4 August 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124932165208802149.html.

Another SEC triumph. If material, why didn't Ernst & Young, Take-Two's CPAs find this?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hah IA...

The accounting firms get off scot free in this financial debacle... astounding that they "blessed" the books of Lehman, Bear, AIG, etc...

Complicit in the systemic fraud. Yup.

Independent Accountant said...

Anonymous:
If you haven't, read my 13 May 2009 post: "PriceWatergate's Waterloo?" How stupid are the Big 87654, or how venal?

Anonymous said...

I think the Big 87654's are venal... which can be cured... stupid... not so easy to cure...