The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Generally Accepted Accounting Principles" ...
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Shriners Hospitals for Children Investigation Series
Freelance reporter Sandy Frost investigated a tip from Shriner Vernon Hill that there were irregularities in the way the fraternal Shriners organization and the charitable Shriners organizations were handling their money and not complying with Standards For Charitable Accountability.
Tags: Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine AKA Shriners; Standards for Charity Accountability; 2001 Criminal Tax Manual; Hershel Gober; Philanthropic Research, Inc. AKA Guidestar.org; Second Avenue Partners; Mike Slade; Aquantive; Nick Hanauer; Shriners; Masons; Knights Templar; Royal Order of Jesters; National Sojourners Order of Quetzacoatl; Mike Severe, Imperial Officer, Shrine of America; compensation; real estate transactions; excessive benefit transactions; charitable donation fraud; HIPPA; Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; Vernon Hill; Suite101.com; Paul Dolnier; 501c10 non profit fraternal corporation; 501c3 non profit charity; Better Business Bureau; Charity Watch Center; Pennsylvania's Charitable Special Investigation Unit; Internal Revenue Service; IRS; good old boy system; U.S. Senate Committee on Finance; whistleblower retaliation; Charles G. Cumpstone Jr., Potentate Stewart W. Lewis; Charities Review Council of Minnesota; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; GAAP; Independent Sector; SLAPP: strategic lawsuits against public participation; Cabiri Royal Order of Scotland; International Order of Demolay
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New ethics or no ethics?
This multi-piece report analyzes the ethical transgressions that some Internet entrepeneurs have performed as Internet-based companies have become more valuable in the stock market during the last part of the 1990's and the beginning of the 2000 decade. The reporters tell the story of several CEO's who made millions of dollars by selling stock of companies they were running and which seemed robust, but were extremely volatile.
Tags: Internet; Internet entrepeneurs; venture capitalists; Wall Street; Silicon Valley; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); Financial Accounting Standards Board; Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Investor Responsibility Research Center
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Managed Earnings
Fortune looks at some accounting methods that most top corporations use to "manage earnings," in other words - to inflate their financial results in order to meet Wall Street expectations. The Securities and Exchange Commission declared war on the "accounting hocus-pocus," as making the numbers was becoming a widespread practice amongst publicly-owned companies, the magazine reports. The story raises the question whether the uncannily disciplined growth of American corporations in the last decade was not due to their "cooked books," another term for accounting beyond the rules. Several major accounting fraud investigations in recent years are pointed to as examples of chicanery.
Tags: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; SEC; CEOs; revenues; earnings; reserves; Livent; Bankers Trust; General Electric; Underwrites Financial Group; KPMG; Ernst & Young; Sunbeam; Waste Management; Rite Aid; Cendant; CUC International; Bankers Trust; Oxford Health Plans
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Selective Disclosure Series: Whispers That Roar; The End of Earnings as We Know Them; Access Denied
This three-part series investigates how a) Wall Street's "$10-million-a-year superstar analysts" reserve their true "whispers" estimates to leak to big investors and "deliberately lie" to other investors; b) "... how companies - with the approval of their accountants - are now able to understate their losses and overstate their earnings."; c) "Companies routinely disclose market-sensitive information at closed-door conferences with big investors and analysts, giving them a chance to trade first and putting small investors at a disadvantage."
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Unlimited Liability
The National Law Journal reports that "Accountants' legal exposure is fuzzy, but the bottom line is clear: Damages are exploding..... Less clear is whether the meganumbers add up to a new dimension in exposure for the profession.