Tag: Financial Fraud

Former SRHS CEO Chris Anderson is a CPA/CEO so let’s try to think like one

Since transparency is still sorely lacking over at Singing River Health and because I rolled out my working theory why the events surrounding this man made financial disaster have unfolded in a certain way we have to take a step back and look at the big picture. And to do that we must think like former CEO Chris Anderson, the man with all the answers.

To understand how the disaster unfolded most good Certified Fraud Examiners will tell you to “think dirty” and what it meant by that term is that the “frauditor” must 1. Understand how the perpetrator thinks by attempting to walk the proverbial mile in the perp’s moccasins which leads to 2. Gaining a possible understanding the motivations which lead to the disaster. This specialty is essentially the intersection of the social sciences with the accounting and finance that was originally pioneered by legendary sociologist/criminologist Donald Cressey, a name that has been mentioned a few times previously on this website.

First up are a few requisite disclosures. Dating back to November of last year I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many fine folks from over in Jackson County with connections to either the hospital system or County Government and the resultant communications with this group have a painted a picture of CEO Anderson that I thought was rich in its depth and color that also came with some analysis that is out of this world in my opinion.  Important to note is that the totality of what I’ve been told by multiple parties (many with but some without a dog in the hunt) about Anderson is actually fair to the man, who has been the villain of choice for the media covering this disaster, Slabbed included.

The most frequent adjective mentioned to me concerning Anderson is Continue reading “Former SRHS CEO Chris Anderson is a CPA/CEO so let’s try to think like one”

If you’re not reading SRHS Trustee Scott Taylor’s blog…..

Then those of you that get part of your daily news on Slabbed are really missing out. First off I want to give Taylor a WordPress platform tip so that the posts and comment time stamps are expressed in local time. From your dashboard go to “settings”, then click “general” on the sub-menu. On your general settings tab change the timezone to “UTC-5” from the drop down menu. You can thank me later.

On Sunday, Taylor posted his take on the Board of Supervisor’s recent Public Relations push with legal consultant Billy Guice on the point for the Sups. The post was good but the comments to Taylor’s post, as is often the case on an interactive website, are out of this world and I think are a must read.

My personal opinion is most everyone on the outside looking in at the Singing River financial disaster without a financial dog in the hunt, especially informed financial observers spot the self-serving duplicity in how both the Supervisors and the SRHS Board of Trustees are trying to frame the management perpetrated accounting fraud which lays at the heart of financial crisis that grips the hospital.

At its most basic, both the Sups and the SHRS Trustees are trying to scapegoat the former auditors and the retirees for the bad business practices and fraudulent  financial reporting which occurred under former CEO Chris Anderson’s and CFO Mike Crews’ watch at the helm of SRHS. It is a shame the old time practice of tarring and feathering has gone out of style because I can think of five Supervisors (Stupidvisors in RFP speak) that deserve a good tarring, feathering before being run out of town on a rail. These are strong words but I am an informed financial observer so the bullshit is easy to spot. Let’s start with April Havens over at the Mississippi Alabama Press:

Jackson County supervisors this morning announced they are suing KPMG, Singing River Health System’s former audit firm whose work led to a disastrous $88 million accounting adjustment.

Supervisors today hired attorney Billy Guice on a contingent fee basis to represent the county in its suit against the audit firm.

KPMG has been the scapegoat of choice for both the SRHS Board when the financial fraud (though it was not reported as such by the Mississippi Alabama Press) first came to light back in March, 2014 as County Comptroller Josh Eldridge, reportedly a CPA that previously worked for the State Auditor’s office took point for the Sups spinning the management perpetrated financial fraud just days after Chris Anderson abruptly left Singing River Health for Baptist in Jackson:

“It’s a large adjustment,” county Comptroller Josh Eldridge said.

Board attorney Jessica Dupont noted, however, that the county doesn’t know of a current lawsuit.

The health system is county-owned, and the county backs its debt, but county tax dollars do not fund the system’s operations. The county has five mills pledged in case the health system ever defaults on its debt, but Eldridge noted the system is “not even close” to default.

That tune has since changed with regard to the bonds being in default, such condition also present when Eldridge made those initial statements. Now back to Jackson County’s announcement that they were suing KPMG as Guice literally beclowns himself before the financial and auditing community as he lists two grounds for the suit:

Last week, Guice said the audits did not appropriately disclose the state of the pension in the annual audits. That information should have been presented in the audit highlights at the beginning of the document, he said.

Instead, the most important information was buried in the “notes” section at the end of the audit, he said.

Now at this point I’m going to put on my professional hat as a CPA/Auditor but I’m going to express the concepts in the language used by an 8 year old so that maybe some of this sinks in with the Stupidvisors, who I would highly encourage to run  by their in-house financial expert Josh Eldridge.

The “front part” of the audit is called “Management Discussion and Analysis“. You see boys and girls, in an audit there are two teams. One team is called management. The boys and girls that belong to Team Management work at the hospital. These people include doctors and nurses that cure your bobos and hurts. It also includes the boys and girls that manage the hospital. The other team is called the “auditors” and that team includes the boys and girls that make sure the Hospital reports its cures of bobos and hurts accurately for everyone most everyone for just a few people to see.

Now back to grownup talk for the professionals that read this website. Continue reading “If you’re not reading SRHS Trustee Scott Taylor’s blog…..”

Liars and Crooks are easily spotted……

It is a long interview and there is copious amounts of BS early on when SRHS CEO Kevin Holland tries covering for his predecessor but overall Doug and Dave did a good job honing in the real issues at play on News Watch This Week. Most interesting is Holland tacitly admits that SRHS chose construction projects over honoring its promises to its retirees.

WLOX.com – The News for South Mississippi
Continue reading “Liars and Crooks are easily spotted……”

From the Cerebral Wing of the Slabbed Nation: President Obama, The Peter Principle, Crooks and Liars.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich has encapsulated literally years of posts here on Slabbed regarding the financial crash of 2008 and explains why Team Obama is regarded as an utter failure by the American public.  As a reader commented via email to me with the link, (this column is) “Something that you could have authorship of.”  Rich lays out the case both against Team Obama and Team GOP.  The bottom line is Wall Street owns the GOP 100% and the Dems about 85%. What a great choice we have as the wealthy elites continue to drain the treasury dry and run the country further in debt. Here are a few snippets:

The reasons for his failure to reap credit for any economic accomplishments are a catechism by now: the dark cloud cast by undiminished unemployment, the relentless disinformation campaign of his political opponents, and the White House’s surprising ineptitude at selling its own achievements. But the most relentless drag on a chief executive who promised change we can believe in is even more ominous. It’s the country’s fatalistic sense that the stacked economic order that gave us the Great Recession remains not just in place but more entrenched and powerful than ever.

No matter how much Obama talks about his “tough” new financial regulatory reforms or offers rote condemnations of Wall Street greed, few believe there’s been real change. That’s not just because so many have lost their jobs, their savings and their homes. It’s also because so many know that the loftiest perpetrators of this national devastation got get-out-of-jail-free cards, that too-big-to-fail banks have grown bigger and that the rich are still the only Americans getting richer.

This intractable status quo is being rubbed in our faces daily during the pre-election sprint by revelations of the latest banking industry outrage, its disregard for the rule of law as it cut every corner to process an avalanche of foreclosures. Clearly, these financial institutions have learned nothing in the few years since their contempt for fiscal and legal niceties led them to peddle these predatory mortgages (and the reckless financial “products” concocted from them) in the first place. And why should they have learned anything? They’ve often been rewarded, not punished, for bad behavior. Continue reading “From the Cerebral Wing of the Slabbed Nation: President Obama, The Peter Principle, Crooks and Liars.”