In a few days, printed copies of the two books in my Tragedy of Fraud series will be available in print at Amazon.
They are currently available in e-book format at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the iTunes store. (more…)
Books you might enjoy
Tragedy of Fraud – Insider Trading Edition available at Amazon
Now available at Amazon:
Tragedy of Fraud – Insider Trading Edition: The fall from Big 4 audit partner to prison inmate.
Until April 2013, former KPMG audit partner Scott London was in charge of the audit practice for the southwest region. He was responsible for the audit work of 500 accountants and had the paycheck to go with those duties.
Today he is a prison inmate residing at the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, California serving a 14 month sentence.
Primer on fraud in local governments
If you work in a local government, are in leadership there, or provide audits in that sector, you really ought to check out Charles Hall’s book, The Little Book of Local Government Fraud Prevention.
I bought & read a copy a while back and really, really want to write a review of the book, but haven’t been able to pull together my thoughts. (Sorry Charles!) It is a good read.
(cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update.)
Until I pull together my thoughts, just know that I believe you would benefit from reading the book.
Arriving soon at an e-retailer near you: Tragedy of Fraud, Insider Trading Edition – The fall from Big 4 audit partner to prison inmate.
Debut appearance of the cover, hot off the digital press:
My newest book is in the last stages of editing. Hope to move into conversion to e-book format soon. Will be released in the next couple of weeks.
As you may know, I’ve been following the story of Scott London closely on my other blog, Attestation Update. Mr. London was the partner at international accounting firm KPMG in charge of the audit practice for the southwest region of the U.S.
He was caught passing inside information to his golf buddy. When confronted, he quickly confessed and plead guilty. He received a fourteen month jail sentence and is now a prison inmate at the Taft Correctional Institution.
You can now read of his journey from the lofty world of senior leadership to prison inmate in this book. The dozens of blog posts covering the story have been combined in chronological order instead of being spread all over the blog in reverse chronology. The posts have been edited slightly and the sequence changed a bit.
Available soon
The story of Mr. London’s fall will soon be available on your phone, e-reader, tablet, or other reading platform of choice. Will be available at the Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes stores.
Print copy will be available at Amazon soon after the electronic version is published.
Newest book on differences between audits, reviews, and compilations now available in print and for Nook
Print copy and Nook e-book are in addition to availability for the Kindle and another half-dozen formats.
The book is an intentionally short read at about 30 pages. The print copy has 20 pages of text. Focus is to quickly describe the differences between those levels of services using three illustrations:
- A football game – How does advancing to the 10-yard line compare to an audit?
- What would a review look like in a football game?
- Buying a used car – How does taking the car for a test drive compare to a review?
- Filling a bucket – How filling it up with water to different levels illustrates the differences between the levels of service.
It also explains the differences in plain language. Well, at least using less accountantese than you would usually get from an accountant.
This is a compilation of posts previously appearing on my blogs, with slight editing.
Where can you find the book?
Print book at Amazon here.
Nook e-book at Barnes and Noble here.
Kindle e-book at Amazon here.
Also available here in other formats:
- ePub format for your iDevices
- text
- Mobi for your Kindle device
“Audit. Review. Compilation. What’s the difference?” – New book now available.
Audit. Review. Compilation. What’s the difference? – Illustrations using a football game, buying a used car, and filling a bucket.
What’s the difference between getting an audit, review, or compilation from your CPA firm? This short, 29 page book will help you understand.
Three illustrations help explain the differences:
- A football game – How does advancing to the 10-yard line compare to an audit? What would a review look like in a football game?
- Buying a used car – How does taking the car for a test drive compare to a review?
- Filling a bucket – How filling it up with water to three different levels illustrates the differences between three levels of service.
This is a compilation of articles at my blog, Nonprofit Update.
The book is now available at Amazon.
Now available here in other formats:
- ePub format for your iDevices
- PDF or text
- Mobi for your Kindle device
Soon to be available at Barnes and Noble.
“Once Upon Internal Control” fable now available in multiple formats
I just published my short book, “Once Upon Internal Control” at Smashwords, which means it is now available in several formats:
- Epub – readable on your iPad, Nook, Sony Reader and lots of other e-reading devices
- Kindle
- RTF
You can preview 30% of the book for free.
What’s this book about? (more…)
Webcast for NPO board member orientation
Christian Leadership Alliance will have a webcast on 5/23/13 on board member orientation in a nonprofit organization – Effective and Efficient Governing Board Orientation.
The presentation is from Mr. Michael Batts, CPA, managing partner of Batts Morrison Wales & Lee, P.A. His firm focuses on serving the nonprofit community.
If I’m reading the description correctly, the webcast will cover the material in Mr. Batts’ book, Board Member Orientation.
‘Tragedy of Fraud’ in e-book format – soon to be released
Tragedy of Fraud – The Ripple Effects from Fraud and the Wages Earned will be released soon in Kindle format. This is a compilation of blog posts about the damage caused by fraud. It will also discuss the fraud triangle.
The sections of the book are: (more…)
“A bad quarter” versus “I could go to jail” – Is it time to indict a few bankers for money laundering?
Reuters reports “Exclusive: HSBC might pay $1.8 billion money laundering fine – sources”. That’s up from the $1.5B they previously announced as a reserve.
The article reports of leaks that a settlement could include a deferred prosecution agreement with the huge fine. It then discusses the difficulty prosecutors are having in deciding whether to pursue the fine, which may or may not change behavior, or to actually prosecute a few individual bankers.
Update: WSJ reports 12-10-12 an imminent settlement could be for $1.95B, including a deferred prosecution agreement and admission of violating the bank secrecy act.
The pattern in recent years has been to negotiate a fine and impose a deferred prosecution agreement. Yet there seems to be repeat behavior.
As an aside, DealBook has sources that say Standard Chartered to Pay $330 Million to Settle Iran Money Transfer Claims. That would be to the feds and is in addition to the $340M they already agreed to pay New York State. If correct, that would be $670M for laundering $250B of Iranian money.
Is there an option other than indicting the bank, which would likely be a death sentence?
Is it time for individual prosecutions?
After the explosions of big financial scandals at the turn-of-the-century, I very clearly noticed the change in how such cases are prosecuted.
Previously, the low-level people in a criminal scheme or financial scandal could trade testimony against their bosses in return for walking away without prosecution. Those have been the rules for decades.
Not anymore.
Q: Are overhead ratios the perfect measure of NPO efficiency and effectiveness?
A: No way.
This is the conclusion of Saundra Schimmelpfennig in her e-book, Lies, White Lies, and Accounting Practices; Why nonprofit overhead doesn’t mean what you think it means
Many people believe that the ratio of supporting services to total expenses is the ideal way to measure the efficiency of a nonprofit organization.
Even at a conceptual level, that is a flawed idea.
At a practical level, Ms. Schimmelpfennig explains it is so easy to play games with the functional allocation that the overhead ratios should be viewed skeptically.
How to emasculate a man and walk away feeling warm and fuzzy – unintended consequences, part 3
In Toxic Charity – How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (and How to Reverse It), Robert Lupton describes the harmful unintended consequences of the way we usually do charity.
In 1981, he moved into the neighborhood where he was serving. On Christmas Eve, he was visiting the home of some new friends.
Mom, dad, and the kids were anxiously awaiting visitors. There was one strand of lights on the small artificial tree in the corner. The nicely dressed people from the suburbs arrived with armfuls of nice presents wrapped so pretty.
In the midst of the unwrapping, the father slipped out of the house. Later one of the kids asked where he was. Mom said he had to go to the store.
“Once Upon Internal Control” is available on Kindle platform
My tale on internal control done well and poor at two churches is now available in Kindle format at Amazon.
Price is $0.99.
You can read the book on your Kindle device, on any smart phone with a Kindle app, or on your computer using the Kindle-for-PC application.
At Amazon, search for my name, Ulvog, or the book title, Once Upon Internal Control.
Or click here to go directly to the book.
Myths about church dropouts – research from Barna Group
Barna Group has released new research about young people who drop out of church. Their book is called, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church…and Rethinking Faith.
They have posted an executive summary of the research on their blog: Five Myths about Young Adult Church Dropouts.
The myths: (more…)
Brain stretching books
A few weeks ago I attended the Dave Ramsey Live! event in Long Beach. Here is just one of the many great comments he had:
If you are in business, you should be reading these three authors:
- Jim Collins
- Seth Godin
- Malcolm Gladwell
I wholeheartedly agree.
At my other blog, Attestation Update, I’ve posted a list of some great books from these authors that can help you stretch your brain.