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Today at the KPMG 16th Annual Accounting and Financial Reporting Symposium I heard an interesting presentation from Thomas C. Newkirk a Partner with Jenner & Block in D.C. Mr. Newkirk's session was titled "A Former Insider's Look at SEC Enforcement Development." Near the end, he summarized his thoughts on keeping out of trouble with the SEC. Here are some of the highlights:

a. "never make a mistake alone," always go to subject matter experts and work with a good faith approach.

b. "don't rely on the engagement partner," in many cases the engagement partner is not necessarily a subject matter expert and on difficult issues you should insist that national weighs in on the issue.

c. "everybody does it," is obviously no excuse, simply look at backdating.

d. "its only temporary," don't hide financial results because you think they will recover (e.g. WorldCom).

e. "good soldier," don't be a good soldier - this is extremely difficult especially if you are uncomfortable (even slightly) with the people that you work with and/or for.

f. "email, email, email," the SEC loves email - imagine every email you write on the front page of the WSJ.

g. "10b-5-1 program," a binding plan = bullet proof from insider trading.

h."not my problem," actually it is.

i."do not make false statements or destroy evidence," why has this one been so hard for some?

j. "it's not what you did that sends you to jail, it's what you do after what you did".

Great advice for a lot of things.

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Posted by Brett Suchor at 09:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)