June 12, 2013
Will the SEC Really Bring More Financial Fraud Cases?
Over on the “Mentor Blog,” I recently blogged about “New SEC Software Identifies Potential Fraud.” And I’ve been reading how the new SEC Chair is bringing in other prosecutors to work on the Staff (here’s the latest). So it was interesting to read this DealBook article – which first caught my eye due to its catchy title – about how Chair White intends to bring more financial fraud cases. Only 79 such cases were brought during the most recent fiscal year. Learn more in David Smyth’s blog.
From the Staff’s perspective, financial fraud cases are a real bear. They chew up a lot of resources and require special expertise as an accounting background is necessary for some members of the investigatory team. Unlike insider trader cases – which often can be a slam dunk – financial fraud cases typically take years to bring, rather than months. And since the SEC tends to be graded – by Congress and the media – by how many cases it brings, financial fraud cases are mainly a lot of risk and little reward for the agency. So it will be interesting to see if the SEC’s approach does change and how it goes about pulling it off…
The One Word That Shouldn’t Exist in an Entrepreneur’s Vocabulary
Speaking of lessons learned, this blog by Mark Suster in “Both Sides of the Table” is fantastic. Share it with your loved ones and colleagues. It’s all about “You don’t ask, you don’t get,” which might sound trite in isolation – but Mark is such a wonderful story teller that he brings the concept to life…
Rare Study: CEO Evaluations
In this podcast, Professor Dave Larcker discusses his new study – conducted jointly by the Center for Leadership Development and Research at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance and The Miles Group – about the annual evaluations that boards give their CEOs, including:
– How hard was it to find information about CEO evaluations?
– What were the findings that didn’t surprise you?
– What were the most surprising findings?
– Why do you think boards are not pressuring CEOs to do a better job in mentoring talent?
– Broc Romanek