June 24, 2003
In recent months, litigation partner Michael Young, a recognized expert in accounting irregularities and financial fraud, has been continuously sought by the press to comment on the current wave of accounting debacles and on the outlook for the future.
In recent months, litigation partner Michael Young, a recognized expert in accounting irregularities and financial fraud, has been continuously sought by the press to comment on the current wave of accounting debacles and on the outlook for the future. In an in-depth interview with the New York Law Journal on June 5 (“The Numbers Game”), Mr. Young stated that “the seeds of today’s accounting problems were planted years ago and we are just starting to see them crop up.” Noted as counsel to the audit committee of HealthSouth, Mr. Young explained that “Right now, we are measuring the conduct of yesterday against the standards of today.” Mr. Young told the NYLJ that the pressure to perform, rather than outright dishonesty, gave rise to many of the accounting problems we are seeing today. With regard to the SEC’s new requirement that auditors certify financial controls, Mr. Young told Bloomberg News and the Chicago Tribune, among others, that “This is a landmark step forward in the evolution of financial reporting. Up to now, auditors have not been ordinarily asked to provide positive assurance on internal controls. Now that they have been asked to do so, we can expect much more rigorous scrutiny of companies’ internal control systems as part of efforts to root out financial fraud.” Mr. Young, who is the author of Accounting Irregularities and Financial Fraud (2nd Ed., Aspen 2002), has also recently been interviewed by The Boston Globe, Reuters, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post on a host of issues related to financial reporting and accounting irregularities.