FEI Weekly

June 30, 2020

EY in hot water over Wirecard scandal and Cirque du Soleil files for bankruptcy.

Cirque du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy

Bloomberg

Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group filed for bankruptcy protection after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to close shows around the world, bringing one of the best-known brands in live performance to its knees. Entertainment companies that depend on large crowds were among the first business casualties of the virus. Cirque du Soleil laid off 4,679 employees (about 95% of its workforce) in March after shutting down 44 productions to comply with government orders around the world.

Luckin Coffee Asks Chairman to Resign

Accounting Today

Luckin Coffee’s board will require Chairman Charles Zhengyao Lu to resign, adding to the fallout from an accounting scandal that has battered the onetime market darling. The move, coming after Luckin fired its chief executive officer last month, adds to the list of challenges facing Lu, who became a billionaire after his fast-growing Chinese coffee chain went public in the U.S.

EY in Hot Water Over Wirecard Scandal

PYMNTS.com

In the ongoing scandal of Wirecard, under fire for fraud, the focus is now turning to auditors EY, which reportedly failed to report Wirecard’s “unorthodox financial arrangements” as far back as 2016, The Wall Street Journal is reporting. According to emails seen by WSJ, the auditing firm knew of and had questions about the arrangements and was signing off on Wirecard’s financial results for years anyway.

PPP Borrowers Need To Know This Key Date

Forbes

On June 25th, Treasury released an FAQ that will impact many borrowers. “If a PPP loan received an SBA loan number on or after June 5, 2020, the loan has a five-year maturity. If a PPP loan received an SBA loan number before June 5, 2020, the loan has a two-year maturity, unless the borrower and lender mutually agree to extend the term of the loan to five years.” While many tax professionals were aware of these maturity dates, they may come as a surprise to PPP borrowers. 

Coronavirus Won’t Kill The Commute

Quartz - Paywall

If working from home en masse was going to kill cities or the commute, it would have happened by now, says Jonathan English, a writer and urban planning PhD candidate at Columbia University. We’ve had the means to ping each other for work purposes and make video calls for years, he says, but you still haven’t seen most people who could seek out cheap housing in the country. That’s because not all employers believed remote employees would be productive, yes, but also because people choose where to live based on many factors—wanting to be near friends, family, and others who want the same lifestyle, the same bars and restaurants and gathering spots—and not only where the office happens to be, he explains.