Professor Elam

Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M

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  • Professor Elam

    Jimmy’s Egg

    TUesday July 4 2017

    Jimmy's Egg is anothe innovation iover coming the long hours of most restaurants. Screen Shot 2016-07-21 at 11.55.10 AM

    This franchise is typically located in a a suburb in a low cost by pleasant location. They only offer breakfast and lunch in a sit down waitress oriented fashion. This solves the help problem and limits the menu.

    Lunch is pretty standard burgers, sandwiches along with traditional chicken fried steak and such.

    Breakfast reminds me of the sort of Chinese menu  in that you can  build your own breakfast.

    Again this is another example of a business plan which eliminates a lot of problems.

  • Professor Elam

    Big Brother is Watching

    Tuesday July 4, 2017

    Hello! Is this Gordon's Pizza?
    No sir, it's Google Pizza.
    I must have dialed a wrong number. Sorry.
    No sir, Google bought Gordon’s Pizza last month.
    OK. I would like to order a pizza.
    Do you want your usual, sir?
    My usual? You know me?
    According to our caller ID data sheet, the last 12 times you called you ordered an extra-large pizza with three cheeses, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and meat balls on a thick crust.
    OK! That’s what I want …
    May I suggest that this time you order a pizza with ricotta, arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and olives on a whole wheat gluten free thin crust?
    What? I detest vegetables.
    Your cholesterol is not good, sir.
    How the hell do you know?
    Well, we cross-referenced your home phone number with your medical records. We have the result of your blood tests for the last 7 years.
    Okay, but I do not want your rotten vegetable pizza! I already take medication for my cholesterol.
    Excuse me sir, but you have not taken your medication regularly. According to our database, you only purchased a box of 30 cholesterol tablets once, at Drugsale Network, 4 months ago.
    I bought more from another drugstore.
    That doesn’t show on your credit card statement.
    I paid in cash.
    But you did not withdraw enough cash according to your bank statement.
    I have other sources of cash.
    That doesn’t show on your last tax return unless you bought them using an undeclared income source, which is against the law.
    WHAT THE HELL?
    I'm sorry, sir, we use such information only with the sole intention of helping you.
    Enough already! I'm sick to death of Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and all the others. I'm going to an island without internet, cable TV, where there is no cell phone service and no one to watch me or spy on me.
    I understand sir, but you need to renew your passport first. It expired 6 weeks ago.

  • Professor Elam

    Who’s the Worst 2017

    Wednesday June 28, 2017

    For several years I have started a Who's the Worst list of Fraudsters. Last year I began in the summer and ran to January of  2017. 

     

    Each Fall I begin a Who's the Worst list of fraudsters.This is preparation for the Accounting Ethics 5308 class taught in the spring. One particular case has already caught my eye so let's get underway. 

    \July 10, 2016

    August 1, 2015

    August 4, 2013

    October 30, 2012

    December 9, 2011

    April 30, 2010

    Interestingly  I never run out of new material.  And there have been so many in subsequent I had to created individual categories.

    So let's get started

    SPORTS

    TIm Duncan testifies about millions lost by Financial Adviser Charles Banks.

    Banks wisely plead guilty rather than face a San Antonio jury. Banks defrauded San Antonio Spurs beloved Tim Duncan out of most of his $24 million as alleged by Duncan. Banks admits to $6 million. One can easily imagine any San Antonio jury throwing the proverbial book at Banks. How could Banks think he could get away with defrauding San Antonio's most beloved sports figure?

    Baylor loses to Liberty and then UTSA

    Our 2016 Who's the Worst featured the sad story of Baylor Fotball player attacks on women being ignored by the former Coach. Baylor has been sued, fined, and sullied as a result. Now there is a new Coach but things are not off to a good start, The Bears are 0-2 against Liberty and UTSA.

     

    Screen Shot 2017-09-11 at 1.12.56 PM

     

    FINANCE

    Three Men Arrested in San Antonio Mortgage Fraud

    The charges allege they all operated a “second chance” financing business under the name of T.G. and Wealth, Infinite Properties and Me in 3D, focusing on individuals who were financially unable to apply for traditional home financing.

    The men allegedly offered the individuals financing at a rate of 8.5 percent interest on the principle for a 20-year-term if they could afford a 10 percent down payment on the house of their choice.

    Gomez, Rodriguez and Ramos allegedly conducted business in the area of San Antonio by recruiting realtors to funnel prospective home buyers to Infinite Properties.

    Ex Barclays CEO Appears in Court.

    Wells Fargo May Have Charged 500,000 Clients for Unwanted Insurance.

     WFC was the topic of many of our posts last Fall 2016 as Stumpf went from CEO to out on the street in about five weeks. The bad news just keeps coming.
    We learn in Ethics class that the tone is set at the top, and Stumpf's revnue growth at any price tone keeps emerging. This is why, particularly in a bank, a serious well run internal control policy is necessary.
     
     
    Why isn't this stock in the toilet where it ought to be?
     
     

    Mute

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    Wells Fargo

    Wells Fargo May Have Charged 500,000 Clients for Unwanted Insurance

    Bloomberg
    Jul 28, 2017
     
     

    Wells Fargo & Co.’s disclosure that it may have pushed thousands of car buyers into loan defaults and repossessions by charging them for unwanted insurance is raising doubts about the bank’s ability to put proper controls in place.

    “The steady drip of revelations is concerning as it makes quantifying and qualifying the extent of the internal control failures difficult,” Isaac Boltansky, an analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading, said Friday in an email. “Which is worrisome for both Washington and Wall Street."

     

    PwC found guilty in Colonail Bank Audit

    PwC failed to uncover a $2 Billion Fraud Scheme

    The lawsuit concerns a fraud scheme centering on Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., once one of the nation’s biggest mortgage companies. Taylor Bean was a major customer of Colonial’s. and authorities have said Taylor Bean overdrew its Colonial account for years to cover its own cash shortfalls. The mortgage firm covered that up by, among other things, selling Colonial thousands of mortgages it had already sold to other investors, according to authorities.

    More big firmwoes and the CPA Exam

    HEALTH CARE FRAUD

    Health Care Fraud is so prevalent that the FBI has a  Medicare Fraud Strike Force

    The frauds typically involve false invoices for services never performed. This can require obtaining the Health Care Credentials of individuals for an insurance fraud.

    The largest fraud ever was announced July 14, 2017

    SAVANNAH, GA: On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Secretary Tom Price, M.D., announced the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, involving 412 charged defendants across 41 federal districts, including 115 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving approximately $1.3 billion in false billings. Of those charged, over 120 defendants, including doctors, were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.

    Senator Bob Menendez Trial has it all!

    Yep, this one reads like an Ian Fleming Bond novel. Those novels typically featured an international bad guy with all sort of nefarious schemes and plenty of money to finance them. Consider this excerpt

    Menendez is facing charges that he sold his US Senate office to a Palm Beach, Fla., eye doctor, his co-defendant Salomon Melgen, for bribes in the form of private jets stocked with Menendez’s favorite beverages, a private villa at one of the lushest resorts in the Caribbean, and a Paris hotel suite for which Melgen spent 650,000 American Express points.

    The two men met in 1993 when Melgen contributed $500 to Menendez’s first House re-election campaign at a South Florida fundraiser — his first political contribution. In the decades since, Melgen became a major high-dollar Democratic donor, and when Menendez was appointed to the Senate in 2006, they already had an extraordinarily close relationship.

    That relationship allowed Menendez to enjoy a lifestyle far beyond his legitimate income of $174,000. It was a life of luxury funded by one of the largest Medicare frauds in history, a $105 million scheme for which Melgen has already been convicted on 67 counts of fraud in a separate federal trial in Florida.

     

     GOVERNMENT

    A Federal Jury convicted the former city manager and maor of Crystal City for bribery.

    Crystal City finances are now a shambles thanks to over spending by the former officials.

    Yankel Rosenthal plead guilty to money laundering.

    I guess you could say, it's all in the family, see excerpt below.

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former member of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez' cabinet pleaded guilty in a New York federal court on Tuesday to attempting to launder drug money from the Central American country, prosecutors said.

    Related SearchesAnti Money LaunderingWhat Is Money LaunderingMoney Laundering ExamplesTrump Money Laundering

    Yankel Rosenthal, who served as minister of investment under Hernandez, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan, prosecutors said.

    Rosenthal, 48, was charged in October 2015 along with his father, Jaime Rosenthal, a former vice president of Honduras.

    His cousin, Yani Rosenthal, a veteran politician and two-time presidential candidate, was also charged in the laundering scheme along with Andres Acosta Garcia, a lawyer with the family's Grupo Continental conglomerate.

    The CEO of San Antonio Centro is resigning after discovery of an apparent $175,000 theft.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Centro-San-Antonio-CEO-quits-amid-allegations-of-12389196.php

    More on DiGiovanni

    https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2017/11/29/centros-pat-digiovanni-resigns-amid-ethical-investigation-again?mode=print

     Carlos Uresti trial postponed until January, another ponzi scheme

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/local/article/Bates-lawyer-asks-to-withdraw-from-FourWinds-12287971.php

    San Antonio Tri Centennial CEO Resigns over conflict of interest just as celebration set to begin

    Did you hear who is headlining as a singer-Pat Benatar, really?

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Benavides-resigns-as-Tricentennial-Commission-CEO-12353220.php

     

  • Professor Elam

    3 D Design

    Monday June 26, 2017

    Divergent 3 D

    is using 3D printer technology combined with computer algorithms to create unique objects in a fraction of the time at a fraction of existing cost.

    Here is the latest from Jay Leno's Garage. Looks like the future may be more interesting than most think.

    Learn more at the company hwebsite for Divergent Blade.

  • Professor Elam

    Summer Accounting Internship

    Wednesday June 22, 2017

    I received this e mail regarding an internship. A bit late but let me know if you are interested.

     

    I have a client interested in hiring an Accounting Student for the Summer to work in their Accounting Office. Please forward Resumes or contact information on any available students. Thanks for your help.

  • Professor Elam

    Tech Sell Off, Energy Prices Falling, Are Energy Shares Bottoming?

    Weekend June 17, 2017

    See my newspaper column posted yesterday.  I suspect energy prices will bottom and shares rebound over the next three months or so. But are we seeing some signs of that now?

    Bullish Percent

    Screen Shot 2017-06-17 at 7.05.41 AM

     

    At bottom the PMO, a Decision Point indicator much like MACD, is rising. In the main panel the downtrend line has now turned at least sideways.  As noted in the newspaper column, price is once again testing the year long $45 support.

    Weekly Bullish Percent or what happened in February 2016

    Screen Shot 2017-06-17 at 7.11.01 AM

    I placed MACD behind the price chart, This makes fore a busy graph but it also makes another thing cleara. MACD peaked along with PMO way back in April 2016. The

    bullish percent has been correcting for over a year! Now PMO in the lower panel looks to be bottoming as does MACD. And the actual BP indicator is making a slightly higher low than in February 2016.   The MACD histogram is also rising.  All this is encouraging as a first sign of bottoming. And note this is a weekly chart.

    Weekly XLE Energy ETF

    Screen Shot 2017-06-17 at 7.26.12 AM

    The same thing is apparent here. In the main panel MACD looks to be turning sideways.  The histogram is turning up. AT bottom is PMO trying to bottom at the zero line?  It looks that way to me.  At top OBV appears to be turning up. It seems reasonable to expect that the big oil producers will attract some buying as the media still wrings hands over the glut of oil and low prices.

    XES Energy Service

    Screen Shot 2017-06-17 at 7.24.02 AM

    All indicators will not turn at the same time. And so Energy Service is clearly in a weaker position. MACD and PMO are both still falling.The histogram is not moving up. Price over shot the 17level to 15.86. Here is substituted on balance volume at top, no interest in the market to buy XES. So that indicator needs to pick up.

     

  • Professor Elam

    Why Does Marissa MMayer Merit a Parachute?

    Wednesday June 14, 2017

    Verizon closed on its $4.4 B acquisition of Yahoo this week. The new President, Marissa Mayer, unable to turn the company into a Google or FB, did arrange the sale.

    Yesterday I completed my required ethics class for maintaining my CPA certificate. The presenter mentioned several fraudsters who literally stole money from investors or their company.

    But a more interesting question to me is the situation of people like Marissa. She walks away with a $23 million package of cash and equity. But 2,000 employees at Yahoo get laid off.

    Where is their parachute?

     

    Her reward works out to #1,150 per employee laid off. Where is the equity in that?  I mean most anyone could have hawked Yahoo to another internet company or phone company as she did. Was that really so difficult?  Was it worth $23 million?

    Carly Fiorina was similarly criticized for the lay offs at Compaq while CEO of HPQ.

  • Professor Elam

    Robots Are More Advanced than You Think

    Monday June 12, 2017

     

     

  • Professor Elam

    Revenue Recognition Webinar

    Posted Tuesday May  30, 2017

    Design, Implementation & Automation – Revenue Recognition under ASC 606 or IFRS 15
    While the new revenue recognition standard is an accounting-based driver for change, the impact of the standard extends across the company. A company's technology landscape, or application architecture, is a critical component of the overall assessment to ensure completeness of the eventual solution.

    In this webcast, you will gain an understanding of how to effectively transition from an accounting assessment to the design and implementation phase of the project. Regardless of where you are in your revenue recognition implementation, you'll gain new insights to help your organization achieve compliance.

    The session will also include a high-level presentation and demo on how RevPro, Leeyo's flagship RevRec software, can fit the needs of companies who are looking to automate their revenue processes.
    Time

    Host

    CPE
    Monday, June 12, 2017
    9:00 am PST | 12:00 pm EST | 90 minutes

    John Devine, Director of Financial Systems, RGP
    Amanda G. Carrillo, Technical Accounting Manager, Leeyo

    1.5 Accounting Credits

    This is a group, internet-based, basic level course. There is no prerequisite and advanced preparation is not required. RGP's educational webcasts are complimentary and do not impose a cancellation penalty.

  • Professor Elam

    A New Take on an Old Idea – Big Ass Fans

    Weekend May 29, 2017

    Really that is the name of the company.  Jay Leno interviews a rep for giant shop fans.

    Next time you sand in line at Costco, look up and you will see examples of these huge fans. Screen Shot 2017-05-29 at 6.05.45 AM

     The company provides unique solutions for both fans and lighting, check it out at the website.

    The firm is in Lexington, Ky, all American made.