And it's actually an accounting treatment, as you know, that's been in place for a hundred years.
The change of accounting treatment for options pushed their financial impact to the profit line of the company.
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Many of the allegations of fraud at Enron related to the accounting treatment of off-balance sheets and other transactions.
Unlike the opaque Lehman, MF Global fully disclosed the trades and their accounting treatment including the off-balance sheet effect.
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While this is a standard accounting treatment, people who follow our company may not be fully aware of how it impacts our financial reporting.
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During the meeting, Hulse passed around a memo, disclosing that PwC had erred in approving the accounting treatment for the off-balance sheet entities, the suit says.
Tyco's former outside auditor, Richard Scalzo, testified that he had raised some of the biggest disputed bonus payments at a board audit-committee meeting, where he discussed their accounting treatment.
Consequently, it passed a law prohibiting auditors from prescribing any particular accounting treatment of the credit--thereby allowing companies to flow the credit through to earnings all at once or amortize it as they pleased.
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However, evidence emerged in the Andersen trial that Mr Fastow had rejected a particular accounting treatment for some of the off-balance sheet partnerships, adopting instead something that did not conform with American accounting rules.
Shares in Ahold, a Dutch supermarket operator with large American operations, recently tumbled after investors took fright at the company's attempt to gloss over an unflattering American accounting treatment in favour of the European one.
But a combination of bigger losses to hide and the success of the disguise meant that the partnerships soon grew so big that it now seems surprising, to put it no stronger, that the auditors did not revisit their accounting treatment and legality.
Now, as the Financial Accounting Standards Board again debates the treatment of options, the calculations behind their accounting are under attack.
The charity denies wrongdoing, partly, it seems, by asserting it simply was doing what everyone else was doing and accounting rules allowed the treatment.
Companies are subject to different rules on accounting, information disclosure and the treatment of minority shareholders.
Under accounting rules, Enron's treatment of these transactions probably would have been acceptable if they involved a genuine transfer of risk to a third party (ie one independent of Enron).
Defense attorneys have been able to cast a slim shadow of doubt on even the seemingly impervious whistle-blower Sherron Watkins , who memorably submitted a memo stating that "Enron will collapse in a wave of accounting scandals, " and former Treasurer Benjamin Glisan , who as it turns out received favorable treatment while in prison.
PwC came to this conclusion after consulting with three of the other big accounting firms and each firm indicated that the unit didn't qualify for off-balance sheet treatment, the suit says.
The accounting standards for both these trades and repo-to-maturity trades allowed off-balance-sheet treatment.
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