Lance Armstrong Investigation: Anti-Sportsman of the Year

Today, Sports Illustrated published something that makes me conclude that the world has clearly come to grips with the corruption and cheating in pro cycling that existed for the past several decades. If you haven't seen it yet, you should check out this Sports Illustrated link where they awarded Lance as the "Anti-Sportsman of the Year." To my knowledge, this award has been created just for Lance. Well, I guess Lance can add that to his list of accomplishments. (If I'm wrong about this, please let me know but I don't think SI has ever given such an award before.)

Livestrong, Lance Armstrong and the IRS

Forbes published an article yesterday that discusses the distinct possibility that LiveStrong may be in trouble with the IRS. As it turns out, non-profit organizations are prohibited by law from exerting political influence. In addition, if reports are true that Lance has often taken a cut of the funds that donors thought they were giving to Livestrong, the IRS certainly will want to know more about that behavior too. Here are some excerpts from the Forbes article:

HP Writes Off Nearly $9 Billion Related to Accounting Fraud

Reports are coming out today that Hewlett Packard will take an $8.8 billion writeoff of an acquisition of a software company they purchased for $10 billion. The reason for the writeoff is because the company they acquired, Autonomy, deceived them by using a massive revenue recognition fraud. HP stated that they have turned over the case to the SEC and regulators in the UK. You can read a few more details on Forbes, MSNBC and elsewhere. It seems the reports are still a bit vague though...

According to this article in the WSJ, two of the Big Four, Deloitte and KPMG, were involved in the audit and purchase of Autonomy. Unfortunately, they will undoubtedly be dealing with this mess too.

JOBS Act Leads to First Fraud Case

In March of this year we blogged about the, then proposed, JOBS Act and how this act would eliminate important disclosures meant to protect investors from fraud. The Act lowers the regulatory hurdles for companies who are defined as emerging growth companies. The NY Times reported this week that a company named Caribbean Pacific Marketing is the first company that got its start under the JOBS Act and is being prosecuted for fraud. Here are a few bytes from the NY Times: