News Article Week 2

The article that I read was from the New York Times.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/business/abraham-briloff-accounting-professor-dies-at-96.html?ref=accountingandaccountants&_r=0

                This article was about a man named Abraham J. Briloff.  He is an accounting expert.  He would look into companies financial records and write for Barron’s about his findings.  His findings were always very influential.  He usually caused company’s stock prices to fall.  He died this past Thursday.  With the articles that he wrote for Barron’s, he became a celebrity in the business community.  Briloff was legally blind and had to have his students or his daughter read the financial statements that he was reviewing to him.  One main article that he wrote was about Waste Management and Arthur Andersen.  He questioned their statements and the chief financial officer denied everything.  Ten years later the Securities and Exchange Commission accused them of fraud and said it started the year that Briloff wrote his article.  He was a wonderful accountant that had a huge impact on many businesses.

                This relates to my field of accounting because Briloff was a huge part of the accounting world.  He was a very influential man that could tear apart accounting firms.  It was men like these that could shut down firms.  He said that he was always making sure that companies were following the “generally accepted accounting principles.”  This is what Wipfli LLP strives to do.  This is what every accounting firm strives to do.  I am taught that we have to follow these principles because this is the way things have to be done.  During my orientation week with Wipfli LLP, we discussed these principles.  We discussed the importance of these as well.  We talked about how companies have to follow these principles to make sure that everyone is being fair and there is no fraud that is going on.  I think it is really cool that this was Briloff’s goal as well.  He wanted to make sure there was no fraud going on and that everyone was following the rules.  That is just what Wipfli LLP does when they audit companies.  They check their financial statements like Briloff, and report their findings.  Overall in the business world, it was big news that Briloff died.