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Accounting News Roundup: KPMG Buys an Investment Bank; Big 4 Oppose Hong Kong Sit-in; Bad Bathroom Behavior | 06.27.14

KPMG Acquires Boutique Investment Bank St. Charles Capital [WSJ]
Denver-based St. Charles Capital now flies under the KPMG banner: "KPMG Corporate Finance LLC is buying Denver-based St. Charles Capital to address a growing demand for M&A advisory services as its clients increasingly rely on acquisitions to transform their businesses, said Lynne Doughtie, KPMG's vice chair of advisory, in a statement reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. St. Charles Capital advises companies in the technology, health care, energy, financial services and diversified industrial sectors."

Why Parmalat litigation v. Grant Thornton is like 0-0 soccer game [Reuters]
Football metaphors make everything easy: "We’ve seen some great footwork from the lawyers on both sides — Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan for the main Parmalat bankruptcy trustee, Diamond McCarthy for the Parmalat Capital trustee, and Winston & Strawn for Grant Thornton — but neither side has put the ball in the net for a goal. Posner’s instruction that the cases return to state court puts the litigation into sudden-death overtime."

Big Four Accounting Firms Oppose HK’s Occupy Central [WSJ]
Occupy Central is staging a sit-in and mock referendum. The firms published a half-page ad opposing both: "The accounting houses called for the issues to 'be resolved through dialogue,' writing that civil disobedience in Central could hurt the city’s financial industry. 'We worry that multinational companies and investors might consider moving their regional headquarters from Hong Kong, or even remove their businesses, in the long term shaking Hong Kong from its position as an international financial and commercial center,' the firms wrote." 

2nd Circ. Axes PWC, Citco's Appeal Of Madoff Deal [Law360 (Sub)]
Sticking their noses where they don't belong: "The Second Circuit on Thursday refused to toss an $80 million class-action settlement between management at a feeder fund and investors who lost money in Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, saying the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Citco Group units who appealed the deal had no standing to do so."

BNP Paribas Expected to Plead Guilty and Pay $8.9 Billion Fine [DealBook]
Everyone has the weekend to think it over: "The plea deal, which authorities hope to announce on Monday, will include a statement of facts that outlines how France’s largest bank hid the names of Sudanese clients when processing transactions through its American operations, according to the people briefed on the case who spoke on condition of anonymity. While the bank engineered most of the transfers between 2002 and 2009, the people said, some of the misconduct stretched into 2012, after the government’s investigation was already in full swing."

EPA Employees Told to Stop Pooping in the Hallway [GovExec]
Sounds like they could use some bathroom self-regulation over there: "Management for Region 8 in Denver, Colo., wrote an email earlier this year to all staff in the area pleading with them to stop inappropriate bathroom behavior, including defecating in the hallway.   In the email, obtained by Government Executive, Deputy Regional Administrator Howard Cantor mentioned 'several incidents' in the building, including clogging the toilets with paper towels and 'an individual placing feces in the hallway' outside the restroom."

 

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