...WorldCom took the telecom industry by storm when it began a frenzy of acquisitions in the 1990s. The low margins that the industry was accustomed to weren't enough for Bernie Ebbers, CEO of WorldCom. From 1995 until 2000, WorldCom purchased over sixty other telecom firms. In 1997 it bought MCI for $37 billion. WorldCom moved into Internet and data communications, handling 50 percent of all United States Internet traffic and 50 percent of all e-mails worldwide. By 2001, WorldCom owned one-third of all data cables in the United States. In addition, they were the second-largest long distance carrier in 1998 and 2002. How the Fraud Happened So what happened? In 1999, revenue growth slowed and the stock price began falling. WorldCom's expenses as a percentage of its total revenue increased because the growth rate of its earnings dropped. This also meant WorldCom's earnings might not meet Wall Street analysts' expectations. In an effort to increase revenue, WorldCom reduced the amount of money it held in reserve (to cover liabilities for the companies it had acquired) by $2.8 billion and moved this money into the revenue line of its financial statements. That wasn't enough to boost the earnings that Ebbers wanted. In 2000, WorldCom began classifying operating expenses as long-term capital investments. Hiding these expenses in this way gave them another $3.85 billion. These newly classified assets were expenses that WorldCom paid to lease phone network lines from other companies...
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...International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 4 No. 13; October 2013 Cooking the Books: The Case of Malaysian Listed Companies Fathilatul Zakimi Abdul Hamid Rohami Shafie Zaleha Othman Wan Nordin Wan Hussin Faudziah Hanim Fadzil School of Accountancy Universiti Utara Malaysia Sintok, 06010 Kedah Malaysia. Abstract Cooking the books refers to fraudulent accounting activities undertaken by a business to falsify its financial statements. Thus, the objectives of this study are to investigate what the cooking-the-books activities carried out by businesses consist of, how they conduct them, and what the impact is on the business and its shareholders. The case study sample companies are two Malaysian companies that had received various awards from reputable third-party organizations. On the other hand, the activities undertaken in both companies have caused them to be labelled as Malaysian mini Enrons. We employ a qualitative research methodology as most prior research employs a quantitative methodology to investigate the determinant factors in businesses’ cooking-the-book activities. The result of the study shows that the managers have used their positions, prior experience, and regulatory loopholes in their activities. Furthermore, the financial report restatement and higher reported earnings are the early warning signals of their activities. As a result of this, the Malaysian Securities Commission has revised the corporate governance code, and among others incorporated...
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...1. SELECT * FROM BOOKS; ISBN TITLE PUBDATE PUBID COST RETAIL CATEGORY 1059831198 BODYBUILD IN 10 MINUTES A DAY 21-JAN-01 4 18.75 30.95 FITNESS 0401140733 REVENGE OF MICKEY 14-DEC-01 1 14.2 22 FAMILY LIFE 4981341710 BUILDING A CAR WITH TOOTHPICKS 18-MAR-02 2 37.8 59.95 CHILDREN 8843172113 DATABASE IMPLEMENTATION 04-JUN-99 3 31.4 55.95 COMPUTER 3437212490 COOKING WITH MUSHROOMS 28-FEB-00 4 12.5 19.95 COOKING 3957136468 HOLY GRAIL OF ORACLE 31-DEC-01 3 47.25 75.95 COMPUTER 1915762492 HANDCRANKED COMPUTERS 21-JAN-01 3 21.8 25 COMPUTER 9959789321 E-BUSINESS THE EASY WAY 01-MAR-02 2 37.9 54.5 COMPUTER 2491748320 PAINLESS CHILD-REARING 17-JUL-00 5 48 89.95 FAMILY LIFE 0299282519 THE WOK WAY TO COOK 11-SEP-00 4 19 28.75 COOKING 8117949391 BIG BEAR AND LITTLE DOVE 08-NOV-01 5 5.32 8.95 CHILDREN 0132149871 HOW TO GET FASTER PIZZA 11-NOV-02 4 17.85 29.95 SELF HELP 9247381001 HOW TO MANAGE THE MANAGER 09-MAY-99 1 15.4 31.95 BUSINESS 2147428890 SHORTEST POEMS 01-MAY-01 5 21.85 39.95 LITERATURE 14 rows selected. 2. SELECT TITLE FROM BOOKS; TITLE BODYBUILD IN 10 MINUTES A DAY REVENGE OF MICKEY BUILDING A CAR WITH TOOTHPICKS DATABASE IMPLEMENTATION COOKING WITH MUSHROOMS HOLY GRAIL OF ORACLE HANDCRANKED COMPUTERS E-BUSINESS THE EASY WAY PAINLESS CHILD-REARING THE WOK WAY TO COOK BIG BEAR AND LITTLE DOVE HOW...
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...In the book, Something From the Oven, by Laura Shapiro starts off with a lengthy introduction and entitles it, “Do Women Like to Cook?” While this is not what the book is about, it does ask some questions and make some statements that resurface throughout. Such as, the women do the cooking, men go to the kitchen as a profession, and the most important the food industry confronted millions of American women and tried to refashion them in their own image. This caused Americans to think differently of their eating. She also says in this introduction that the 1950’s were not what you thought they were. The purpose of the author writing this book was to inform us that the 1950’s were not what we thought it was, and especially not the food industry....
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...famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school with a goal to adapting sophisticated french cuisine for mainstream americans. While in Ceylon, she met Paul Cushing Child, also an OSS employee, and the two were married September 1, 1946, in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, later moving to Washington, D.C. A New Jersey native who had lived in Paris as an artist and poet, Paul was known for his sophisticated palate, and introduced his wife to fine cuisine. Julia was introduced to 3 french woman who then began working together and open a cooking school, charging $5 a lesson. Soon after they began working together on a french cooking book for americans. manuscrip eventally lands on Judith Jones a young editor, they begin on a long fruitful collabortion. After 9 years of research She then publishes Mastering Arts Of French Cooking Volume 1. They sold 300,000 cops of this book in one month it self. Julia then recieves a interview promoting Mastering on a tv show, she brought eggs a whisk and a copper bowl then started mixing everything up and explained each step by step. Later after the show about 27 people who watched the show wrote the station requesting more as they enjoyed learning diffrent kinds of ways to prepare food. And there after they launched into productions of the french chef. Julia Childs graduated from Smith College with a degree of history. She then became a writter for local publications. Then she returns to the U.S and enrolls in the Los Angeles cooking school. A few months...
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...reasons for why the definition is effectiveness or not. This term is introduced to accounting students on their first introduction to accounting classes and it is also mentioned on the major headline news such as the Enron and WorldCom financial fraud cases. This term, although its main audience is people in the accounting field, has become very effective due to the major financial fraud cases such as Enron, WorldCom, Bernard Madoff and others. The main audience for this term are individuals who are related to the accounting field. Learning that an organization has been cooking the books instantly portrays that a financial fraud has occurred. Also, this term has become a part of the English language due to the major financial fraud cases such as Enron, WorldCom, and Bernard Madoff. This term is effective in its way that it portrays that when it is mentioned that when an organization is cooking the books Accountant students are introduced to this term on their first introduction to accounting classes and 4. Select at least one other response--try a response for a definition not related to your major or field of study/work--and see if you understand the definition. Post your thoughts about the definition in a...
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...= Farang Food by Gill Bater is a recommended book to read to foreigners and Thai alike once they face the challenge of cooking international meals. Farang Food is, as the name suggests, a book that concerns with foods that are outside Thailand's border, mostly on the western side of the world. This recipe book is in its second edition and is printed on good quality glossy stock. This is itself is an important consideration for a recipe book which will spend much of its time in the greasy environment of a kitchen. The copy I have myself have gone through stages of wear and tear, even sribbles from my earlier days of artistic excursions. The book as expressed before is multi-lingual, meaning that a person from more than one ethnic or national background may be able to read it. That is also the main purpose of the book: giving opportunity for those wanting to cook, to also learn a second language. The descriptive detail and instructions within the book are quite simple, a little too simple at times, but it still gets the message across. It is amazing to see that a person is able to squeeze in a 20 step process into a 2 page space. Foreigners living in Thailand have also experienced studying this cookbook. Stanley Kemp, a foreigner living in Thailand who still has a taste for his Western delicacies, stated "...when we returned to 388 John from Jomtien called in for the afternoon so we had a chat about cars, computers and cameras, then Diana made a small chili-con-carne for...
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...Your Choice Essay “A Book With Nostalgic Flavor” – Final Version * Assignment 2.3: Changing Our Lives Essay “Changing Our Lives” – Final Version * Assignment 1.3: Experiences as a Writer Paragraphs “Conquering My Fear of Writing” – Final Version “My Journey as a Writer” Aura Valdes ENG090 Prof. Rachel Hays December 15, 2012 “My Journey as a Writer” I have accomplished a great deal in the past three months. As the semester ends I find myself reflecting not only on how I have survived the first semester but also what I have learned. Writing is hard work. There is so much more to it than just writing an interesting story. I also learned another important lesson; just because I worked hard on an essay before presenting it and reviewed the daylights out of it did not mean it was ready for submission. Every time I went back to read it I found new changes, typos and other mistakes I had missed before. Reviewing and revising an essay is an essential part of writing. Reviewing allows me to rewrite and make changes in the essay’s content, organization and sentence structures. It allows me to add, remove, move or substitute words to make sure it communicates effectively the purpose of the essay. The task of reviewing the essays I wrote for this course allowed me to learn and improve my writing skills; as a result my essays have evolved into more stylish and fluent pieces of writing. Out of all the essays I wrote in this course, “A Book with Nostalgic Flavor”...
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...studies'. Many people find me as a geek, but I only see that as a compliment rather than an insult. I have got big dreams, when it comes to studies. Since I was 6 years old, I decided to be a doctor. So that is my goal and I always try to aim to do my best at school, so hopefully my hard work will pay off in the end. I don't really know why I decided to be a doctor. I just love hospitals. Although I do feel very sorry whenever I see the poor patients in there, but just the fact that we have got hospitals to cure people is a great thing. Caring for people has always been my desire. Whenever I see someone, who I think need careness or help, I am always willing to help them. Some interests I have got are; reading books, wacthing movies, cooking and praying. I love to read books, because...
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...studies'. Many people find me as a geek, but I only see that as a compliment rather than an insult. I have got big dreams, when it comes to studies. Since I was 6 years old, I decided to be a doctor. So that is my goal and I always try to aim to do my best at school, so hopefully my hard work will pay off in the end. I don't really know why I decided to be a doctor. I just love hospitals. Although I do feel very sorry whenever I see the poor patients in there, but just the fact that we have got hospitals to cure people is a great thing. Caring for people has always been my desire. Whenever I see someone, who I think need careness or help, I am always willing to help them. Some interests I have got are; reading books, wacthing movies, cooking and praying. I love to read books, because...
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...the main character, and as he is teaching Jefferson, he becomes the student. He becomes less narcissistic when he teaches Jefferson, especially when he dies so nobly. I like that he changes in the story, but he doesn’t change entirely. It made him lose faith in society. People don’t change overnight, even when you go through life experiences. But in Grant’s case, the slight change he maid had an impact on his life. This spoke to me because it shows that the events of our lives can truly change who we are. Another reason I like this book is that it realistically reflects how African-Americans are treated, especially in the 1940s. The reason Jefferson received the death penalty was because he was African-American. We still see injustices like this today, such as the Ferguson Case, Trayvon Martin, or Michael Brown. A Lesson Before Dying took place before the civil rights movement, but still after the civil rights movement, not much has changed. The book was written after the civil rights movement, so the author wrote a story about how characters change, but our society hasn’t much. After reading A Lesson Before Dying, I asked myself if there any hope for the black community in America. We do have a black president after all, yet it seems like there hasn’t been enough change in our society since the story took place. Even though we have come along way since 1940s, it does not seem like far enough. A Lesson Before Dying is one of my...
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...chapter of our On Course book, we learned about learning itself. The book explained how to become an active learner, and how it related to the CORE learning system. Being an active learner means that implement three things into your learning process: 1.) Prior leaning, 2.) Quality of processing, and 3.) Quantity of processing. CORE is an acronym for Collect, Organize, Rehearse, and Evaluate. Using these four techniques, I am automatically using the three principles of being an active learner. To help us understand being an active learner, we completed a journal entry that showed us something we've already learned by active learning. Mine was about learning how to cook in my various Home Economics classes. http://img2.targetimg2.com/collateral/TargetCom/Production%20Ready/Editorial/Short_Circuit/2013/11_November/Wk1/110313_House_CHEF_Cook_X0Y3.jpg (I put everything in a purple font so it will be easy to differentiate my journal entry from the rest of my blog) Journal Entry #3 CORE Learning Systems Chloe Maxwell 11. Identify one thing you have learned simply because you enjoyed learning. One thing I enjoyed learning is how to cook. 22. With focus on the information or skill identified in Step 1, write the answers to each of the following questions. Use a separate sentence or paragraph for each answer. a. How did you gather the information or skills you need to learn this? (collect) To gather the skills needed for cooking, I signed up for Home Economics...
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...studies'. Many people find me as a geek, but I only see that as a compliment rather than an insult. I have got big dreams, when it comes to studies. Since I was 6 years old, I decided to be a doctor. So that is my goal and I always try to aim to do my best at school, so hopefully my hard work will pay off in the end. I don't really know why I decided to be a doctor. I just love hospitals. Although I do feel very sorry whenever I see the poor patients in there, but just the fact that we have got hospitals to cure people is a great thing. Caring for people has always been my desire. Whenever I see someone, who I think need careness or help, I am always willing to help them. Some interests I have got are; reading books, wacthing movies, cooking and praying. I love to read books, because...
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...they arrive through the ice free corridor in the arctic or did they arrive to America from the east coast or even the South America/ the Caribbean’s? These topics are implied and further explored in Kenneth Sassaman’s book People of the Shoals. People of the Shoals reveal the story of the Stalling Culture, an American Indian civilization that resided in the Savannah River Valley near the Tennessee River almost 4,000 years ago. Kenneth Sassaman provides an intricate yet engaging perspective to the “rise and fall of the Stallings” Island culture as well as illustrate the “archaeology that brings Stalling history to life” (Sassaman 26). Sassaman tells the story of the shoals people...
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...equipment is important. Sally Feldman, in her book “The Backyard Barbecue Cookbook” says the first thing a cook needs to know is how to correctly pre-cook using charcoal. Some meats require marinade, which is the next step. Fire is a dangerous beast, and controlling the temperature of it is necessary. Searing the meat allows moisture to be retained if done right. After learning the essentials, the cook can then move on to other grilling techniques such as smoking. Before getting ahead of ourselves however, it is best to take a look at the history of...
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