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In the Marketplace
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released a statement and response to the SEC's study on arrangements with off balance sheet implications, special purpose entities, and transparency of filings by issuers. In the statement, FASB reaffirmed 'its commitment to improving transparency and usefulness of financial reporting to better serve investors and the capital markets.' FASB's response to the SEC's 'Off Balance Sheet Report' discusses a number of 'fundamental structural, institutional, cultural, and behavioral forces that it believes cause complexity and impede transparent financial reporting.' The response provides an update on FASB's activities and projects intended to address and improve outdated, overly complex accounting standards. These areas include accounting for leases; accounting for pensions and other post employment benefits; consolidation policies; accounting for financial instruments; accounting for intangible assets; and conceptual and disclosure frameworks. The FASB has also 'undertaken several initiatives aimed at improving the understandability, consistency, and overall usability of existing accounting literature, through codification, by attempting to stem the proliferation of new pronouncements emanating from multiple sources, and by developing new standards in a 'principles-based' or 'objectives-oriented' approach.' The full text of FASB's response is available at www.fasb.org/fasb_response_sec_study_obs.pdf.
Interpool, Inc. of Princeton, NJ, has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Interpool Containers Limited, has entered into an agreement to sell a substantial majority of its operating lease portfolio of standard dry marine cargo containers to a newly formed subsidiary of an investor group based in Switzerland. Following the sale, Interpool and its 50%-owned subsidiary, Container Applications International, Inc., will perform management services on behalf of the purchaser for the containers being sold, and Interpool will continue its active businesses of leasing cargo containers and container chassis to shipping lines and other customers. The container sale involves a total of approximately 273,000 standard dry marine cargo containers, as well as an assignment of all of ICL's rights under existing leases for this equipment. The purchase price is approximately $515 million, and sale is expected to close on March 31, 2006.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.
A Lawyer's System for Active Reading
Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.