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Accounting News Roundup: SEC Porn Problem Persists; Camp Says Geithner Wants ‘Revenue’ in a Tax Deal; Deloitte’s New Cloud Practice | 06.02.11

SEC Still Struggling to Stop Its Porn Problem [ABC]
A new report from the SEC’s inspector general David Kotz details how three employees and a contractor were caught checking out porn at work, the latest string of incidents uncovered by the agency’s watchdog. Kotz only launches investigations after the SEC’s security system flags employees for repeated attempts to access porn websites, but as he outlines in his new semi-annual report to Congress, he recently conducted probes into four workers.

Deloitte Elects New Chairman of the Board, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited [Deloitte]
Stephen Almond takes the reins from John Connolly.

Key GOP chairman says Geithner might be looking for revenue in tax reform [The Hill]
Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he got that impression after speaking with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner following Wednesday’s meeting between President Obama and House Republicans. “I think the secretary would like to see revenue as part of any sort of tax package,” Camp said.

India Allows Accounting Firms to Set Up LLPs [WSJ]
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, through the issue of two notifications, has allowed chartered accountants to form limited liability partnership firms. The circulars have removed the ambiguity around the terms “partnerships” and “body corporates”, which would otherwise have required amendments to the Companies Act, 1956, and the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.

Auditors in China burned by cash balance scandals [Reuters]
[Q]uestions have been raised about whether auditors need to beef up procedures for confirming bank statements. Cash is the lifeblood of any company, and bank balances have figured in a number of recent Chinese accounting scandals.

The Art and Science of Business Valuation [AW]
Would you know how to value Linked In? Four billion? Ten billion? The real value of LinkedIn has been talk of the business media since its IPO on May 19. Is the company overvalued? Does Wall Street “get it” about valuing social media companies? The controversy over LinkedIn value puts the spotlight on the art and science of business valuation.

Taxpayer-ID Theft Climbs Despite IRS Crackdown [Bloomberg]
Taxpayer identity theft is growing even as the Internal Revenue Service has taken a series of steps to prevent it, according to a Government Accountability Office report. The IRS identified 248,357 instances of such theft in 2010, compared with 169,087 in 2009 and 51,702 in 2008, according to the GAO. Identity thieves cash in on stolen names and Social Security numbers by filing fraudulent tax returns or by using such data to obtain a job.

Speaker Boehner calls for debt ceiling deal by the end of June [The Hill]
In a press briefing with reporters, Boehner said that waiting until later in the summer could negatively affect financial markets. He claimed an agreement “needs to be done over the next month.”

Deloitte Expands Cloud Computing Practice [Deloitte]
Paul Clemmons will lead the new practice.

Posted in ANR