Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
The World 🌍 of blogging by numbers when 2,222,022 hits the road - There are very few people in the world who understand how it feels to be able to link to surreal Cyprus and so many other bohemian kafkaesque stories …
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine revealed the true price of Cyprus’ lucrative secrecy business. But the unbridled rise of a Russian money hub within Europe’s banking system took years, raising serious questions over how it was allowed to happen.
Do you think KPMG regrets turfing out Chris Jordan in 2013, after he fell foul of the firm's mandatory retirement age of 58?
The nation's tax collector, recently reappointed for a further seven years, told the World Congress of Accountants at Sydney's International Convention Centre on Tuesday that he never figured he'd be in his current role so long. "When I took on [the Australian Taxation Office role], I'd been the chairman of the Sydney office of KPMG for 12 years and I'd reached the retirement age, which I'm told [is] unenforceable," he quipped, a reference to this paper's coverage of the discriminatory schemes in the contracts of KPMG and EY partners and unofficially in place for those at the top at Deloitte and PwC.
"Seven years at that time seemed like such a long period to contemplate," Jordan added. Well, it's flown by. And little wonder, given his industrious output. Just lately, Jordan has warned accountants they can't exactly promise secrecy to clients (given recent leaks), blamed the industry for the over-claiming of work expenses, and hinted at his office's willingness to take a rather different view of legal privilegethan that adopted by the big four. So busy has he been that outgoing inspector-general of taxation Ali Norooziused his farewell addressto call for an independent advisory board to curb Jordan's power. "A board would address concerns regarding too much power being concentrated in one individual, the commissioner," Noroozi said. You could certainly say Jordan's been causing his former industry a headache.
"Seven years at that time seemed like such a long period to contemplate," said Chris Jordan. Well, it's flown by. And little wonder, given his industrious output. Dominic Lorrimer
We're all for rejuvenation, and God knows corporate Australia could use more of it. But there is a cost to turfing out your top people once they hit 58. If nothing else, it gives them a good decade (at least) to get even ...
The federal government appoints KPMG NSW chairman Chris Jordan as chairman of the Board of Taxation and Hall & Wilcox Lawyers’ Keith James as deputy chair.
Brad Hatch
Updated
The Federal Government has appointed KPMG NSW chairman Chris Jordan as chairman of the Board of Taxation, along with Hall & Wilcox Lawyers partner Keith James as deputy chairman. Blake Dawson partner Teresa Dyson was also been appointed as a member.
Mr James was appointed until June 30, 2012. Mr Jordan (who had been acting as chairman since March and had been a member of the board since its September 2000 inception) and Ms Dyson have been appointed until June 30, 2013.
Board of Taxation members John Emerson (Freehills partner) and Annabelle Chaplain (company director) had their terms extended from July 1, 2011, until June 30, 2013.
The changes were announced on Monday by Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, Wayne Swan, and assistant treasurer and minister for financial services and superannuation, Bill Shorten.
The Board of Taxation is a non-statutory body that advises the government on the development and implementation of taxation legislation and the ongoing operation of the tax system.
Wired [read free]: “A little-known surveillance program tracks more than a trillion domestic phone records within the United States each year, according to a letter WIRED obtained that was sent by US senator Ron Wyden to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sunday, challenging the program’s legality.
According to the letter, a surveillance program now known as Data Analytical Services (DAS) has for more than a decade allowed federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to mine the details of Americans’ calls, analyzing the phone records of countless people who are not suspected of any crime, including victims. Using a technique known as chain analysis, the program targets not only those in direct phone contact with a criminal suspect but anyone with whom those individuals have been in contact as well. The DAS program, formerly known as Hemisphere, is run in coordination with the telecom giant AT&T, which captures and conducts analysis of US call records for law enforcement agencies, from local police and sheriffs’ departments to US customs offices and postal inspectors across the country, according to a White House memo reviewed by WIRED.
Records show that the White House has, for the past decade, provided more than $6 million to the program, which allows the targeting of the records of any calls that use AT&T’s infrastructure—a maze of routers and switches that crisscross the United States…”
See also via Muckrock & EFF: “The collection of call record data under DAS is not wiretapping, which on US soil requires a warrant based on probable cause. Call records stored by AT&T do not include recordings of any conversations. Instead, the records include a range of identifying information, such as the caller and recipient’s names, phone numbers, and the dates and times they placed calls, for six months or more at a time.” It’s unclear exactly how far back the call records accessible under DAS go, although a slide deck released under the Freedom of Information Act in 2014 states that they can be queried for up to 10 years.”
Highlights on cyber security issues, November 18, 2023 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weisshighlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness.
Four highlights from this week: ChatGPT Has Been Turned Into A Social Media Surveillance Assistant; Zelle Begins Refunding Scam Victims in Major Tone Shift; New York to crack down on hospital cybersecurity; and Microsoft lays hands on login data: Beware of the new Outlook.
