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Firm Watch
Frazier & Deeter Announces Strategic Growth Investment from General Atlantic [General Atlantic]
A literal who’s who of accounting firm private equity deals. As in “literally who?”
Frazier & Deeter (FD), a globally recognized accounting and business transformation firm, today announced a strategic growth investment from General Atlantic, a leading global investor. The investment also included the participation of PSP Capital Partners and Aksia.
Prague & Company Combines with EisnerAmper [PR Newswire]
Global business advisory firm EisnerAmper announces that the colleagues of the accounting practice of Prague & Company, P.C., are joining EisnerAmper in a combination expected to close in spring 2025. Founded in 1988 and based in the Boston metropolitan area, Prague & Company has a team of 15 professionals.
Orlando pet supply store, accounting firm file for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection [Orlando Business Journal]
The Accounting Lab Group — which has offices in Lake Mary and other East Coast cities — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy March 25. The accounting company’s estimated assets and liabilities both fall between $1 million-$10 million.
CPA Firm Ciuni & Panichi Files Official Notice of Data Breach [JD Supra]
On April 1, 2025, Ciuni & Panichi, Inc. filed a notice of data breach with the Attorney General of Texas after discovering that an unauthorized party had gained access to confidential information in the company’s possession. In this notice, Ciuni & Panichi explains that the incident resulted in an unauthorized party being able to access consumers’ sensitive information, which includes their names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth.
PwC exits Francophone Africa [Zawya]
Details of the exit remain scanty, but the consultancy firm said in a statement on March 31 that its firms in sub-Saharan Francophone Africa will “no longer be part of the PwC network.” The firms are based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Guinea, Senegal and Equatorial Guinea.
PwC China plans to spin off cyber security arm [Financial Times]
PwC China plans to spin off its Dark Lab cyber security arm in a private buyout deal, as the Big Four firm seeks to improve liquidity and navigate the financial fallout from its audit of failed Chinese property developer Evergrande. PwC China’s board and Dark Lab’s management have been evaluating bids in recent weeks, said three people familiar with the process.
Tax
IRS: 7,000 probationary workers will return to their jobs in next 10 days [Journal of Accountancy]
About 7,000 probationary IRS workers who lost their jobs in February and were placed on administrative leave in March will return to work later this month, according to an email they received Tuesday. “You are receiving this email as one of approximately 7,000 probationary employees who were separated from service and have been reinstated in compliance with recent court orders,” the email read. “At this time, while you remain on administrative leave, you will soon receive instructions for how to return to full-time duty by April 14.”
Talent
Huntsville’s growth puts pressure on local accounting industry [Huntsville Business Journal]
“Huntsville has grown tremendously over the last decade, yet the number of CPAs seems to be decreasing here,” said Jeff Brown, CPA, CFE, of Henry & Brown Certified Public Accountants. “Several older CPAs have retired and sold or closed their businesses, but they are not being replaced quickly enough.” Brown has attempted to recruit CPAs to Huntsville but finds that many professionals are drawn to larger cities like Nashville or Atlanta, unaware of the opportunities in North Alabama. “Fewer people seem to be going into accounting because the degree sometimes takes longer, or they do not want to work the busy season schedule,” Brown said.
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SEC
Why Reporting Accounting Fraud Will Lead to Future SEC Whistleblower Awards [National Law Review]
SEC enforcement actions against accounting violations and improper disclosures often lead to significant penalties. Eligible whistleblowers may receive awards of between 10% and 30% of the monetary sanctions collected in successful enforcement actions. Since 2020, some of the SEC’s largest enforcement actions were brought against companies engaged in accounting violations.
Other Stuff
US Grant Accounting Proposal Critiqued as Too Narrow in Scope [Bloomberg Law]
The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s draft plan to plug a hole in the US accounting rulebook offers companies options that could lead to differences in reporting, making it more difficult to compare financial reports across businesses, comment letters due early this week said. “Comparability in financial reporting is critical for investor analysis, yet the proposed amendments allow for multiple accounting approaches that reduce consistency,” an American Accounting Association committee said in its letter.
Macy’s executives will have to pay back over $600,000 after an accounting scandal inflated their bonuses [Business Insider]
The retailer overstated one of its earnings measures by $81 million in 2023, the company said in a filing with the SEC. That metric influenced how much Macy’s executives were paid in bonuses the following year. As a result, some execs will have to pay back a cumulative $609,613 in cash bonuses that the company awarded them through the end of 2024, according to the filing.
An accounting startup has turned tax preparations into a Pokémon Showdown game [TechCrunch]
“Once you finish your PokéTax run, we guide you to the IRS Direct File site to officially submit,” Open Ledger co-founder Pryce Adade-Yebesi told TechCrunch. The game is an adaptation of the open source Pokémon game called Pokémon Showdown, and he promised this was not an April Fool’s joke. “This is real; it works. Tax fraud isn’t funny — and neither is the IRS,” he said.