An Update on Lehman and EY

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal:

A lawsuit contending that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s former officials, underwriters and auditors are responsible for investor losses should go forward for the most part, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

According to the article, the judge ruled that:

More on the Cheating Scandals in Public Schools

Imagine if the response to Enron and WorldCom was to say that business leaders are set up to commit fraud because the market is too interested in accounting information so we should have businesses report less economic data about their performance. According to an article in The New Republic, that is essentially the reaction by some in education to the recently reported cheating scandals in Atlanta and elsewhere. Here are a few quotes:

International Auditing

Finding fraud in any company can be very hard.  The most egregious financial statement frauds are often the result of a coordinated effort by multiple individuals, who design the fraud in a way that will allow it to go undetected by standard audit procedures.  Even nonstandard audit procedures can fail to detect a well designed, strategic fraud.  Combine that with international audit clients operating in emerging economies, and you have a recipe for disaster.  This is creating problems for auditors in China, as highlighted by the WSJ:

A Fraudster Cyclist with a Defective Moral Compass

If you know Michael Rasmussen's story, you know that he was leading the Tour de France in 2007 when he got kicked out of the race and fired by his team. Why? Because he was caught breaking the rules with respect to doping. So what is he doing now? He's suing his former team because they fired him! I'm totally amazed by this! Here is what we know...

More Teaching Scandals in the News

Last October, I wrote about a teaching scandal in Georgia schools where teachers were apparently erasing and correcting students answers on standardized tests so as to obtain funding and accolades. Yesterday, Freakonomics discussed this and linked a news report showing that Atlanta has had massive teacher fraud going on for several years. In addition...