Michael Doan

Lake Forest man uses fake tax theories to get tax refunds for his clients:

Cao used a theory called “redemption” or “commercial redemption” – which prosecutors called a “rejected tax defier theory.” This theory claims that the U.S. Treasury keeps millions in a secret treasury account for each taxpayer. The secret account can be used to pay a taxpayer’s debts and tax liabilities if a taxpayer sends the IRS and banks certain documents, the theory goes.

“Cao’s theory is complete fiction,” the complaint reads.

I am pretty sure that his clients didn’t pay too much for his valuable tax advice. You get what you pay for.

I once reviewed my parents’ tax return which was prepared by some hack with an office and a computer with tax software installed. I’m not a tax CPA, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not a good idea to tell married couples to fraudulently file as “single”.

The Corporate & Securities Law blog has a great summary on how the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Proctection Act will affect the definition of “accredited investor”. The pertinent points are below:

• Net worth of $1 million excludes the value of the investor’s primary residence.
• The SEC can revise the definition for the first four years following enactment of the act.
• Within the next four years the definition of accredited investor must include an increase to the net worth threshold.
• SEC is required to review the definition of net worth every four years.
• the net worth amount will not be go below a $1 million floor.

Now that the Dodd-Frank bill has been signed into law, issuers of asset-back bonds are required to disclose their credit rankings in their regulatory filings. Credit rating agencies like Moody’s are not happy about this because it subjects them to expert liability , “meaning that they would face the same legal risks as accountants and other parties that participate in bond sales.” Issuers were not able to obtain ratings for inclusion in their flings wit the SEC so the SEC granted issuers a waiver for six months which allows time for implementation of the law.

The article briefly mentions that issuers will consider an alternatives to this a law by using Rule 144a but doesn’t adequately explain what 144a is. A good explanation of 144a is here.

Financial statement disclosures in a public filing should allow an investor to see the company through the “eyes of management”. Dell’s management and the investors were seeing different things:

SEC said [Dell] also failed to disclose to investors large payments it received from Intel Corp. in exchange for not using central processing units made by Intel’s main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc

Combining my two favorite things, iPhone 4 and a DSLR lens, some guy mounted a lens onto iPhone 4 using a little tripod contraption.

(via Engadget)

Last year around this time, my family and I were on vacation. My son, 3 years old at the time, was playing on the steps inside the pool. At some point during his playing, he accidentally stepped off the last step and put himself on the bottom of the 3 feet part of the pool. At the 3 feet depth, his mouth was barely above water when he’s standing on the tip of his toes.

He was drowning. My wife was directly in front of him – slightly out of arm’s reach – with her back turned to him. She later told me that she even turned to look at him and didn’t notice anything unusual. What she witnessed was the Instinctive Drowning Response:

The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D.,  is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water.  And it does not look like most people expect.  There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind.  To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this:  It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult.  In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC).  Drowning does not look like drowning.

My son exhibited a textbook response to drowning:

Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. Th e respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.

He didn’t make a sound.

Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.

This is exactly what he was doing. At first, I thought he was goofing around and it seemed only slightly odd that he seemed to be sucking water.

Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.

Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.

His arms were extended and appeared to be gently pressing down. This contributed to my sense that he was just playing.

From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

He was upright, slowly bobbing up and down, arms extended and gently pressing down on the surface of the water. It actually looked peaceful. I watched my son doing this for several seconds before I realized that he was in trouble. I would have mistaken his IDR for play if it wasn’t for the fact that we were recently in the water with me holding him in my arms because he couldn’t touch the bottom of pool with his feet.

I walked passed my wife, stepped into the pool, grabbed my son’s arm and pulled him out of the water. There was no sense of panic and I was surprisingly calm as I did this, but my son also appeared calm in the water while he was drowning.

(via Daringfireball)

In the current economic environment, its difficult to obtain a bank loan or a line of credit. Businesses fortunate enough to have a line of credit worry about having their line pulled as bank credit managers continually tighten their lending requirements to keep their reserve ratios up with regulatory demands. A recently proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 1810-100 (PDF) issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) could make it more difficult to obtain a bank loan.

ASU No. 1810-100, Accounting for Financial Instruments and Revisions to the Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities — Financial Instruments (Topic 825) and Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815) would, according to the FASB, result in common fair value measurement and disclosure requirements in U.S. GAAP and IFRS, including word changes to describe the principles and requirements.

The impairment test and expanded use of fair value measurements in the proposed ASU 1810-100 has caused a stir in the banking industry. Banks say that changes in the accounting standards will require them to beef up their reserves and scale back loan originations. If this happens, businesses may find it even more difficult to get a line of credit.

Comments on this proposed standard is due September 7, 2010