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Here we are, back for another week. Yippee. Comments are off on the Monday news brief by default but you are welcome to hit us up via email<\/a> or text<\/a> if you have something to say. Now, here\u2019s some stuff that\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n In Milwaukee, a Catholic charity is suing a former employee as well as Baker Tilly<\/a>, the latter because they didn\u2019t notice almost $2 was missing:<\/p>\n Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is suing its former finance director, alleging she funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into her own pocket. It\u2019s also suing the auditing firm Baker Tilly, saying auditors missed signs of fraud.<\/p>\n In December, the social services agency said it fired two employees and identified two other former employees believed to be involved in a years-long scheme to steal at least $1.7 million.<\/p>\n Catholic Charities named former finance director, Brandi Ellis of Milwaukee, and Baker Tilly as defendants in its lawsuit filed May 9.<\/p>\n The nonprofit runs several programs, including adoption services, adult day services, counseling, case management, and refugee and immigration support.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Shout out to my colleague for Slacking this over.<\/p>\n University of Tulsa shares a bit of wisdom for students picking a major<\/a> from a business school graduate whose mom was an accountant and who initially didn\u2019t want to spend her working life surrounded by number crunchers (who does??):<\/p>\n But then a UTulsa professor gave her some advice.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said that when picking your major and your career, you should stick close to the people you like being around,\u201d Hannah Bostian recalled. \u201cYou will spend about 90,000 hours of your life in your career, and the No. 1 thing that makes it enjoyable is being around people you like. When selecting your major, you should like the professors that teach it and the students who take it. At the time, I was an engineering student taking some business electives, and I quickly realized that I had made friends in the business classes. I decided to follow my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Across the pond, the big firms are talking to their audit regulator about the wrench US tariffs are throwing into their duties, reports The Times<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n Accountants are lobbying the Financial Reporting Council, the sector\u2019s regulator, to provide more guidance and rules for auditing companies whose operations are significantly affected by the US president\u2019s trade war.<\/p>\n Some of those lobbying for greater guidance include members of the big four \u2014 KPMG, EY, Deloitte and PwC \u2014 it is understood.<\/p>\n They are telling the regulator that the current uncertainty around tariffs makes forecasting future profits more difficult. Forecasting trading is important because it determines whether accounts can be signed off as showing a business is a going concern. This means that the company is expected to continue to operate for at least the next 12 months.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Young lawyers at PwC will riot if you take away their AI, said a partner who also happens to be chief AI officer<\/a>:<\/p>\n When consulting firm PwC\u2014which employs thousands of lawyers to provide clients with legal services\u2014provided an AI tool called Harvey to staff, it expected an enthusiastic response from senior lawyers. But in particular it was the junior staff who were \u201creally excited about it,\u201d said Bivek Sharma, partner and chief AI officer at PwC UK, at Fortune\u2019s Brainstorm AI event in London on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t want to sit there going through legislation manually trying to piece things together\u2026 They can have a tool to kind of get them 60% to 70% of the way there, then they can do more qualitative work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Harvey uses large language models to help legal teams analyze contracts, draft documents, and streamline research. It\u2019s been so well received at PwC, Sharma said, that \u201cif we took Harvey away from our staff, there\u2019d be a riot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Harvey was announced two years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n A guy who swatted the IRS while drunk to get back at the girlfriend trying to break up with him has been sentenced<\/a>:<\/p>\n A Kansas City man was sentenced in federal court for placing a hoax 911 call that resulted in the detention of an Internal Revenue Service employee and a building lockdown on Pershing Road.<\/p>\n Anthony M. Alford, 46, received a sentence of three years in federal prison without parole from District Court Judge Stephen R. Bough. Alford was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison term.<\/p>\n Court records state that on Sept. 10, 2024, Alford called 911 in Kansas City and falsely claimed that a person identified as \u201cVictim One\u201d was armed with a firearm and threatening to carry out a shooting at the IRS Building located at 333 West Pershing Road. Victim One was employed by the IRS.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Alford and \u2018Victim One\u2019 had dated for about a month and she was trying to end things.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s something you probably hadn\u2019t thought about when it was announced last week we\u2019re getting our first American pope: Does Leo XIV have to pay taxes<\/a>?<\/p>\n The United States generally requires all citizens to file an annual tax return, even those who live out of the country. But assuming he doesn\u2019t renounce his U.S. citizenship, Leo \u2014 born in the Chicago area and known until this week as Robert Prevost \u2014 has special tax considerations, both as a clergyman and now as the head of a foreign government.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n WaPo<\/em> does a pretty deep dive on the possibilities. Popes don\u2019t earn a salary but they do \u201cearn\u201d room and board. TLDR:<\/p>\n [Jared Walczak, a vice president of the Tax Foundation] said that he doesn\u2019t expect Leo to end up paying U.S. taxes but that it\u2019s possible the IRS will issue a private letter specifically addressing his situation. Or Congress might even pass a law spelling out the tax situation of the first American pope, Walczak speculated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n An 81-year-old former IRS agent has been sentenced to state prison after she scammed a longtime client with bogus investment schemes<\/a>:<\/p>\n According to the Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez\u2019s office, 81-year-old Elana Cohen-Roth of Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles County was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Friday. Last month, a jury convicted Cohen-Roth of 23 felony counts of financial fraud in relation to the scheme, which victimized a Sonoma County woman.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said Cohen-Roth began defrauding the victim in 2013, when she began preparing the victim\u2019s taxes. The victim was 66-years-old at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cThey quickly became good friends. From their personal and professional relationship, Cohen-Roth gained access to all the victim\u2019s financial information,\u201d according to the DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In Connecticut, an accountant decided to do a little COVID relief fraud<\/a>:<\/p>\n A Woodbridge man last week pleaded guilty to offenses connected to a scheme to defraud a COVID-19 pandemic relief program of more than $2.3 million, according to the office of Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut Marc Silverman.<\/p>\n Yasir Hamed, 60, waived his right to be indicted on May 9 in front of a judge in Bridgeport. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud and engaging in illegal monetary transactions.<\/p>\n From June 2020 to September 2021, he\u2019s accused of submitting false PPP loan applications on behalf of the companies, overstating employee numbers and average monthly payroll, and making other fraudulent representations.<\/p>\n Throughout the scheme, Silverman\u2019s office says Hamed gained $2.3 million in PPP loans for his businesses and his clients.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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