The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has published a staff question-and-answer on the documentation requirements of Auditing Standard No. 7, Engagement Quality Review. The Engagement Quality Review (EQR) standard provides a framework for the engagement quality reviewer to objectively evaluate the significant judgments made and related conclusions reached by the engagement team in forming an overall conclusion about the engagement, according to the agency.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved AS7 on Jan. 15. In its order approving the EQR standard, the SEC urged the PCAOB to provide further guidance on the documentation requirements of the standard. The staff question-and-answer is intended to provide this additional implementation guidance, the PCAOB said.

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, up for reelection this year, has proposed a series of actions intended to repair New York’s recurring budget problems and out-year budget gaps by requiring the state to address out-year budget gaps and attain multi-year budget balance, align spending with available resources, limit debt and curb the use of what he referred to as "fiscal gimmicks."

Shouldn't he have seen this coming?

A nationally known self-proclaimed psychic has been charged with securities fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC alleges that Sean David Morton -- who calls himself "America's Prophet" -- fraudulently raised $6 million after telling investors he could predict stock market highs and lows.

A certain Massachusetts tax attorney may have chosen the wrong career.

Kevin Kilduff has been barred from practicing before the IRS for 48 months for failing to file his own taxes properly. He completely skipped one federal tax return and filed another five returns late, the agency announced in a statement.

There are winners and losers in every situation -- even in Enron's collapse and the ongoing financial crisis.

Two of those winners: New York Times reporter/editor Andrew Ross Sorkin and playwright Lucy Prebble.

If it was a movie, they could call it "Return of the CFO."

If you thought you'd seen the last of Charles Ponzi's favorite scam, think again: yet another scheme reportedly been discovered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) -- this one to the tune of $135 million.

The SEC has charged a prominent Miami-based business leader and his wife with fraud for conducting a vast Ponzi scheme with real estate investments from hundreds of elderly Cuban-American investors living in South Florida.

Senate Democrats plan to use the obscure parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation to circumvent a potential Republican filibuster and pass the health care reform bill with a simple majority. The news comes from Sen.

David A. Paterson, still the governor of New York despite growing demands that he resign from office, faces ethics charges today, adding to the already sizeable heap of scandals that have captured the imaginations of New Yorkers everywhere. Now, on top of everything else Paterson has been trying to deal with, the governor is accused of using his influence to get free Yankees tickets and then lying about it under oath.

If you (or one of your clients) is considering the purchase of a first home, time is running out to partner this particular joy with a healthy tax break.