accounting

David Sokol, once considered a likely successor to Warren Buffett as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, resigned this week from Berkshire under a cloud of possible insider trading charges. But these recent ethical lapses are hardly the worst of Sokol's business transgressions.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a civil lawsuit against Ernst & Young, alleging that the accounting giant helped now-defunct investment bank Lehman Brothers hide billions of dollars in debt from its investors via loans disguised as sales.

H&R Block saw its revenue decline in the second quarter, but still managed to narrow its loss from a year ago and beat analysts' expectations. But will complications with the firm's Rapid Refunds chill its coming tax season?

Over the last 11 years, Asia's IPO market has ascended while the U.S. market has imploded. Led by China, which has raised $76 billion through IPOs in 2010, Asia's share of global IPOs has increased from 12% in 1999 to 66%. Meanwhile, U.S. IPOs have declined from around 44% to 11% during the same time period, according to Bloomberg.

When companies use the word "immaterial" to describe errors or irregularities in their previously reported numbers, what they're trying to say is that their mistakes involved such small amounts that they don't really matter. Too often, though, that's not really the case.

Turns out, the incredible results Dell delivered during the last decade weren't so incredible after all. The SEC has levied fines against Dell, and founder Michael Dell, after charging the computer-maker with accounting fraud.

After a five-year investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, computer maker Dell agreed to pay a $100 million settlement to end civil charges of fraudulent accounting. The agency accuses Dell of pumping up its reported profits with undisclosed payments from Intel.

Dell has reportedly proposed a settlement to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the SEC staff likes and will recommend the commissioners accept. At issue is how Dell did its accounting on deals with Intel. Dell has already been forced to restate four years of manipulated earnings.

How does the alleged $31 million fraud at Koss Corp., a company with sales of no more than $45 million, go undetected for years? Blame management. It gave the employee charged with misappropriating funds far too much autonomy. And it never told auditors to do more than just the required audit.

Because of complex methods for valuing certain bonds, Morgan Stanley (MS) will probably lose money in the first quarter. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Because of the accounting treatment on some bonds issued by Morgan Stanley before the financial crisis erupted, the New York company is...