Renee Howdeshell

Renee Howdeshell is a founding member of Fulcrum Inquiry, an accounting, finance and economic consulting firm that performs damage analyses for commercial litigation, forensic accountings, royalty & distribution audits, financial investigations, and business valuations. Ms. Howdeshell holds a degree in Finance and Marketing from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). She has testified as an expert witness in federal court, CA state court and arbitration regarding the results of her work. She can be reached at (213) 787-4112 and her resume is available at www.fulcrum.com.

Most commented posts

  1. “Too Big to Audit” is no defense — 2 comments
  2. Steve Jobs’ Key Man Discount — 1 comment
  3. Hollywood Accounting: Another good reason to read (and audit) your contracts. — 1 comment
  4. Michael Vick and the Duration of Reputational Damage — 1 comment
  5. Get the benefit of the government’s experience when selecting vendors. — 1 comment

Author's posts

DWP audit finds LA lost hundreds of millions

A recent audit of DWP billings following problems with its new billing system revealed that over $680 million was lost due to faulty billings.  The massive revenue impact is further exacerbated by the fact that the system cost $70 million to originally implement, followed by over $40 million spent so far on efforts to address …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/03/dwp-audit-finds-la-lost-hundreds-of-millions/

A second shot at an end to pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clauses with brokers

Legislation that would free investors from the requirement to engage in pre-dispute mandatory arbitration with their brokers is getting a second life.  Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minn, has once again introduced the bill to Congress, with the following findings: “(1) Investor confidence in fair and equitable recourse is essential to the health and stability of the securities …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/03/a-second-shot-at-an-end-to-pre-dispute-mandatory-arbitration-clauses-with-brokers/

Anti-poaching settlement approved at $425 million

U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh has blessed a $415 million settlement in the antitrust class action suit against Apple Inc., Google Inc. and others.  The defendants were accused of illegally agreeing not to poach each other’s software engineers.  A prior settlement deal at $325 million was rejected by the Court as insufficient.

Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/03/anti-poaching-settlement-approved-at-425-million/

FBI Business Email Compromise Alert

The FBI has issued a warning for increasing levels of a type of fraud known as “business email compromises” that target companies that regularly wire funds to foreign third parties.  In this scheme, an accounting officer is targeted with an email that appears to be originating from a company executive.  In fact, upon closer inspection …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/02/fbi-business-email-compromise-alert/

Government Typo Will Require Certain Taxpayers to Delay Filing

Recently the government sent out Form 1095-A to Obamacare participants. However it appears that an error reported in the forms mailed out will need to be corrected.  As a result, affected taxpayers are requested to wait until they get corrected forms before filing.  The blog at healthcare.gov reads: “If you enrolled in a plan through …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/02/government-typo-will-require-certain-taxpayer-to-delay-filing/

New Standard of Value for Appraisal under Louisiana Law

Louisiana has changed the applicable standard of value in its new Louisiana Business Corporations Act. Under the law, shareholders have a right to avoid the effects of certain corporate actions by selling the shareholder’s shares to the corporation, paid in cash.  Under certain circumstances more fully described in the bill, shareholders have such rights in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/02/new-standard-of-value-for-appraisal-under-louisiana-law/

Internet Real Estate Continues to Evolve with New gTLDs

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) announced that over 500 new generic top-level domains (“gTLDs”) have now been introduced into the Internet. The milestone 500th gTLD was .NTT, which represents Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. New domains are rolling out at an average of one per day.  ICANN has described its current process as the “Internet’s …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/02/internet-real-estate-continues-to-evolve-with-new-gtlds/

Court rules indemnification plaintiff doesn’t have to rely only on former opposing expert.

In National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh Pa. v. Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Insurance Co., the California Court of Appeal in the Second District held that a subsequent indemnity coverage action by an insurer may include expert opinions not presented by the original plaintiff’s experts in the underlying dispute.The underlying plaintiff settled with Costco …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/02/court-rules-indemnification-plaintiff-doesnt-have-to-rely-only-on-former-opposing-expert/

There’s Nothing Extraordinary About Your GAAP Based Financial Statements

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) has issued its first accounting standards update of 2015.  Simply put, FASB wishes to inform preparers of financial statements that there is nothing special about the results they are reporting, i.e., the end of the concept of “Extraordinary Items” on Income Statements. Accounting Standards Update No. 2015-01, Income Statement—Extraordinary and Unusual …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/01/theres-nothing-extraordinary-about-your-gaap-based-financial-statements/

Defense Asks Court to Let the Witness Speak!

In a recent patent infringement case, a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition (of the person most knowledgeable or “PMK” of a corporation on defined topics) included over 300 objections by plaintiff’s lawyer.  The defense subsequently argued for additional time to re-depose the PMK, claiming that the large number of objections effectively “ran down the clock” and prevented …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/01/defense-asks-court-to-let-the-witness-speak/