SEC Investigating Loans to Accountants: SEC Chairman...

SEC Investigating Loans to Accountants: SEC Chairman Richard C. Breeden said his agency has launched a “major investigation” involving loans to accountants by companies they audit. Breeden declined to identify the target of the probe, saying only that the investigation concerns potential conflicts raised by such loans. Breeden brought up the investigation in response to questions about reports that regulators are looking into whether partners of the accounting firm Arthur Young & Co. received special treatment on real estate loans from the now-defunct Republicbank Corp. in the early 1980s. Arthur Young is now known as Ernst & Young.