The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission defended to senators Thursday his meeting with accounting industry executives on a post-Enron reform proposal, disputing accusations he improperly excluded public officials.
SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt also urged the Senate Banking Committee not to bar big accounting firms from providing consulting services to companies whose books they audit.
Pitt acknowledged that allowing accounting firms to do both auditing and consulting for the same corporate clients "can, and in a number of situations clearly does, create conflicts" of interest. But the problem "cannot be resolved by simplistic solutions," Pitt said.
The accounting industry is under scrutiny following Enron Corp's bankruptcy, the largest corporate failure in US history. Enron's former auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP, pleaded innocent Wednesday in Houston to a federal charge of obstructing justice in shredding documents and deleting computer files related to Enron.
Senator Paul Sarbanes, the committee chairman, questioned Pitt about his private meeting in December with representatives of the accounting industry.
Two members of the board that oversees the accounting industry denounced Pitt's action earlier this week, saying he excluded them from consultations on his proposal for a new private-sector body to discipline accountants. They said Pitt's move prompted the five members of the Public Oversight Board to vote in January to disband on March 31.
Pitt disputed their version of events and said he doubted that was the real reason for the board members' resignation. He said he has embraced all points of view and groups in his consultations on various issues.
"I'm not going to get down in the muck with some of the accusations that people have made," said Pitt, in his first pointed public exchange with lawmakers since becoming SEC chairman last summer.
Pitt insisted he had consulted with the oversight board members "long before we ever met with any of the CEOs" from the accounting industry.
In that meeting, he said, "Nobody negotiated, nobody talked about what kind of a deal we could make." Rather, Pitt recounted, he warned the accounting executives there were major problems with their industry and they had to act to remedy them.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
RSS