Saturday, January 19, 2008

Of Planks and Specks

"A former PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP auditor profited from trading on inside information that he obtained from a co-worker at the Big Four accounting firm's San Francisco office, the [SEC] said yesterday. ... The SEC said Mr. [Gregory] Raben, of Louisville, Ky., will turn over nearly $24,000 of allegedly illegal profits and pay a fine of equal size. Mr. [William] Borchard, of Chicago, will pay a fine of more than $20,000 and be barred from public-company accounting for at least three years", WSJ, 16 January 2008.

The SEC just restored integrity to the capital markets. All hail the SEC. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye", Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV). SEC, apply the Blankfein test. Ignore Raben and Borchard.

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