Sanford Lewis
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Other changes needed in shareholder proposals process? SEC Div. of Corp. Finance to discuss no action letters on Monday, July 12
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Started this discussion. Last reply by Sanford Lewis Jul 16.

 

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Shareholders at Risk from Accounting Loopholes

The credibility of corporate financial statements is undermined by a set of disclosure and accounting loopholes relating to impending and potential liabilities. Investors should not trust SEC reports and financial statements until these loopholes are closed by FASB and the SEC.

On June 16,2009 the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) issued a new report, Bridging the Credibility Gap: Eight Corporate Liability Accounting Loopholes That Regulators Must Close. The report describes how companies are encouraged, and arguably even required, by current accounting rules to keep hundreds of billions of dollars of impending liabilities off of their financial statements and out of securities filings. While the report examines case studies of asbestos and nanotechnology company disclosures, the findings apply to a wide array of impending and potential liabilities that companies should be disclosing and estimating in their financial statements.

Read more on my blog at http://tr.im/qF4j

Sanford Lewis's Blog

Sanford Lewis

Should shareholder proposals serve as an early warning system for emerging risks and retail challenges?

The socially responsible investment community views the shareholder resolution process as a vehicle for allowing investors to raise and debate issues that may eventually impinge on the corporate bottom line. However, a recent meeting with the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission indicated that such a view is not necessarily shared by the SEC staff.



First, some legal background. Shareholders that hold over $2000 of shares in a company for over a year are entitled under SEC r… Continue

Posted on July 16, 2010 at 8:00am —

Sanford Lewis

Risky Business: 10 Key Questions On Risk Management For The New Decade

Risky Business: 10 Key Questions On Risk Management
For The New Decade

Sanford Lewis

For the last ten years, risk governance and risk management have been on the ascendancy. Early in the decade, Enron and its ilk helped to propel a sense of urgency and crisis, driving the completion of the Enterprise Risk Management framework of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) (2004). But the recent financial crisis, compounded by snowballing sustainability issues su… Continue

Posted on January 8, 2010 at 8:09am —

Sanford Lewis

Shareowners Win Public Policy Victory at SEC! Financial and environmental risks to be allowed in Resolutions

Today shareholders scored a major victory at the Securities and Exchange Commission, winning a reversal of the Bush administration policy that had allowed companies to exclude shareholder resolutions requesting information on the financial risks associated with environmental, human rights and other social issues facing companies. In Staff Legal Bulletin 14E issued today, the Division of Corporation Finance announced that from this point forward shareholder resolutions will be evaluated based on… Continue

Posted on October 27, 2009 at 9:23am — 1 Comment

Sanford Lewis

Three part series exposes billions of dollars in concealed corporate liabilities, allowed by accounting regulators

Current accounting system emphasizes "voluntary" accounting of corporate environmental liabilities, leaving investors in the dark. Will regulators leave it to courts to define corporate duties of proper accounting?

I recently completed a three part blog series regarding how existing accounting rules leave investors without adequate information about companies' liabilities.

To summarize briefly,… Continue

Posted on October 19, 2009 at 2:30pm —

Sanford Lewis

Shareholders Query SEC on No Action Letter Process: Why disempower share owners from seeking information on financial and environmental risks?

The process by which the Securities and Exchange Commission decides whether it will allow companies to exclude a shareholder’s proposal from the annual meeting proxy is coming under increasing scrutiny of the investing community. Many share owners believe the SEC’s process is disempowering investors from seeking information on risks at the very time when empowerment is most needed.

In a meeting with the staff of the SEC Division of Corporation Finance on September 22, an array of shareholder re… Continue

Posted on October 2, 2009 at 7:46am —

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At 11:58am on June 25, 2009, James McRitchie said…
Sanford, great to see your involvement in this new project. Hopefully, this will really help retail shareowners and beneficial owners to get involved. I hope you will consider sending a comment to the SEC supporting our petition to prevent blank votes by retail shareowners from automatically turning into votes for management. See http://www.corpgov.net/news/news.html#BlankVotes
 
 
 

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