Ethics

Benjamin Brafman, Esq., the keynote speaker slated to appear at the June Foundation for Accounting Education Anti-Fraud Conference, was interviewed on the Piers Morgan Tonight program on Monday.

Brafman is the Principal of Brafman & Associates, P.C., where he specializes in criminal law, with an emphasis on white-collar criminal defense. Brafman, who has handled many high-profile cases, spoke about the challenges he faces as a defense lawyer, specifically in working white collar cases.

The world of Islamic finance, a parallel economic world encompassing more than $1.3 trillion assets, is under increasing pressure by investors to join the mainstream accounting community by adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), but the nature of this alternate system, developed to accommodate religious prohibitions on certain economic activities, makes such a conversion a tall order to regulators, according to Reuters.

President Obama signed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act into law today, ending the immunity from insider trading laws once enjoyed by members of Congress and their staff, according to CNN, less than two weeks after the measure was approved nearly unanimously by the Senate.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed suit against two Texas-based executives from a surgical products manufacturer who, while not directly responsible, nonetheless benefited from a series of accounting frauds perpetuated by their company from 2006 to 2008, according to an SEC press release. The lawsuit, directed against ArthroCare Corporation CEO Michael A.

The U.S. Senate approved legislation banning inside trading by members of Congress on a 96-3 vote on Thursday, sending the STOCK Act to the president to now be signed into law, according to the New York Times.

The State Integrity Investigation, a project of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity, has given the Empire State low ratings on a new Corruption Risk Report Card. At least it's in good company: 16 other states also received a D or worse and no one got an "A."

Law enforcement officials have reported a dramatic rise in tax refund fraud, a trend that has accelerated partially due to the increasing use of online tax processing and partially due to new IRS policies designed to speed up refund payments, according to CNN, a racket that has already stolen billions of dollars from taxpayers nationwide.

Add this to the list of phrases you thought you’d never hear: “black market laundry detergent.” While doing the laundry has usually been good, clean fun for the whole family, a recent wave of thefts has revealed a criminal element operating beneath the surface, like a worked in grass stain on a new pair of jeans.

The fate of R. Allen Stanford, the mustachioed billionaire arrested in 2009 for his alleged role in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, is now in the hands of a 12-person jury after the defense and prosecution in his fraud trial finished their closing statements, according to the New York Times.

Four days after the initial deadline, California and New York have finally agreed to sign on to the multi-billion dollar settlement with the nation’s five largest banks after being among the deal’s harshest critics as it was negotiated, according to Bloomberg. With these two large states in on the agreement, the settlement, which would go toward homeowner relief programs, could be valued as high as $39 billion, continued Bloomberg.