An Audit Quality Inspection Scandal: Ethical Lapses in a Misguided Attempt to Alleviate Regulatory Scrutiny

In 2017, KPMG discovered that several high-ranking partners in its Department of Professional Practice (DPP) had surreptitiously obtained highly confidential information on upcoming PCAOB inspections. In obtaining this information, these KPMG partners were able to anticipate and prepare for PCAOB inspections, causing the firm’s inspection deficiency rate to plummet and its executives to tout the success of their efforts to improve audit quality. Once the firm discovered the scandal, the individuals involved were terminated, and six of them were ultimately convicted of felonies. This case study introduces students to relevant auditing standards, audit quality concepts, and facilitates discussion of a number of ethical issues. Learning objectives for this case include obtaining an understanding of the PCAOB and its inspection program, understanding audit documentation standards, demonstrating the ability to evaluate ethical issues, applying the fraud triangle in a unique setting, and assessing responsibility for the various parties involved.

Clearing the Prophet’s Ijtihād from error: تنزيه اجتهاد النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم عن الغلط

There is no doubt that the Prophetic traditions (sunnah) are amongst the foundations upon which Muslims base their Islamic beliefs. They are also one of the pillars that high-ranking scholars rely upon in order to derive religious maxims/rules. In this era, many misconceptions surfaced in regards to the credibility of the Prophetic Sunnah. Through these misunderstandings, numerous people have attempted to prevent others from being committed to the Sunnah and implementing its noble teachings. Perhaps, also, some contemporaries might have referred to certain claims, in some books, which indicate to the possibility of error in the Ijtihād of the Prophet regarding religious matters. This has consequently resulted in repelling people from committing to the Prophetic traditions. Based upon this, through my research, I will attempt to investigate in this matter so as to clarify that the reality is contrary to their claims. Instead, the Prophet, ṣalla-Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam, is impeccable and protected from erring when performing Ijtihād as he is protected from making mistakes in regards to what he relates from His Lord through revelation. I have collated many supportive evidences as well as making note of the misrepresentations I have found and responded to them. Amongst the conclusions this research has arrived at is that when Jesus descends from the sky, all disagreements pertaining to judicial schools of thought will cease, because his Ijtihād is protected from error, therefore his religious opinion would be the accepted one. The methodologies I adopted herein are descriptive & analytical. I hope that this research becomes a new addition to the Islamic body of research and an aid to researchers. I also hope for this research project to fill the gap in extant research, as I have not found anyone who has delved into this matter as I have.

The ransom of high-ranking captives, tributary relationships and the practice of diplomacy in northern Syria 448-522/1050-1128

This article examines how the introduction of western European crusaders and settlers to northern Syria from 490/1097 onwards impacted upon two important mechanisms of regional diplomacy; the ransom of prominent political prisoners and tributary relationships. Discussion begins with a comparison of the capture and ransom of high-ranking captives in northern Syria between 442-522/1050-1128, where it is argued that the establishment of the crusader states led to an increase in both the rate at which prisoners of elite status were ransomed and the financial sums involved in these interactions. This is followed by a reassessment of the various peace treaties, tributary arrangements and condominia or munāṣafa agreements concluded between the rulers of Antioch and Aleppo during the late fifth/eleventh and early sixth/twelfth centuries. Ultimately, this article seeks to place key features of northern Syrian diplomacy from the early crusading period within the context of regional norms in the decades preceding the crusaders’ arrival.

The image of the German in current literature and media

The aim of this article was to analyse the reflection of the image of the German in the examples from the current literature and the media present in the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language of the Vytautas Magnus University. The focus of the study went beyond the collocations with this word and the disclosure of the characteristic traits of Germans all the way to the meaning bestowed upon this word by the broader context – the sentence or a group of them. Examples containing all forms of the lexeme German were examined. A total of six different contexts in which Germans are mentioned were identified: these were the contexts of history, cooperation, sports, culture, characteristic traits, and science. In the context of history, Germans are usually referred to as a belligerent nation, assailants, savage conquerors, invaders. The attitude towards them is negative as often as not. Things are different in the context of cooperation, where the attitude is positive and Germans are seen as friendly partners. In the contexts of sports, culture, and science, the story is more or less the same, with Germans regarded with respect as meritorious and high-ranking representatives of their field.The context of the characteristic traits of Germans has the highest degree of controversy and stereotype. Some data show that Germans, according to the popular belief, are neat, rational, organised, punctual, disciplined, hard-working, cultured, law-abiding; they are rather cold and reserved. Other examples, albeit much smaller in number, bear witness to quite the opposite: that Germans are neither punctual nor overly neat or cultured; some sources even say that they are friendly, merry, and approachable. Besides, this nature loves to travel.

Ketika Pangeran Minta Jabatan: Kajian Filologis terhadap Sepucuk Surat untuk Raffles (1811)

In this article, I discuss a letter from three high-ranking officials of the Cirebon Sultanate to Thomas Stamford Raffles. The letter written on 25 Syaban 1226 AH (September 11, 1811 AD) is a collection of the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia and is coded ID-ANRI K66a, File 3584, Folio 683. Through the letter, they the letter, in essence, they asked for a position to Raffles. As the “old people” in the Cirebon Sultanate, they felt worthy and could occupy certain positions which they submitted themselves to Raffles. In this article, the letter firstly was studied by using the philology theory that contains the method of manuscript study (codicology) and the method of text study (textology). Furthermore, the manuscript content was dialogued to the historical fact in the Cirebon Sultanate, especially in the context of the British plan to occupy Java, so that we obtained a complete understanding of the context of writing the letter. The result shows that when the letter was written, the British had not fully controlled Java. The three high-ranking officials of the Cirebon Sultanate only took advantage of the situation because they knew that power in Java would soon transfer to the British hands. However, until the end of the British interregnum period in 1816, there is no evidence that the request was granted by Raffles.

Andrey A. Winius (1641–1716), vertaler van fabels

Andrey A. Winius (1641–1716) was born in Moscow in the family of Andrey D. Winius (1605–1662), Dutch merchant and manufacturer who lived in Russia from 1632 until his death. Winius junior was a high-ranking statesman who contributed a lot to Peter the Great’s reforms, which made Russia a Europe-oriented power. In 1674 he translated Vondel’s Vorsteliicke warande der dieren (1617) into Russian, supplementing this collection of fables with several texts from the Theatrum Morum by Aegidius Sadeler (1608). The Russian text, entitled The Theatre of Human Life, was distributed in handwritten form. In 1712, The Theatre was published in Moscow. In this article we analyze the Russian version of four fables in order to identify similarities with the sources and the changes Winius made. Besides shortening the original, he also sometimes supplemented the fables with his own moralistic thoughts. In these additions he urged readers to live honestly, respect each other, and not drink too much alcohol. In this way he tried to transfer humanistic ethical values that were common in Western Europe to the Russian society of the 17th century.

Opposing Discourses of Terror:

The primary goal of the paper is to examine how the Turkish and Russian Governments are using the term terrorist in their diplomatic communication towards the Syrian conflict. Following the introduction, the study outlines the theoretical framework – namely the securitisation theory –, then presents a concept of terrorism, which is focusing on the instrumentalisation of the terrorist label in discursive processes. Henceforward, the paper attempts to accomplish the aforementioned goal by examining the Turkish and Russian security discourses on two interrelated issues of the Syrian war: Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring in October 2019, and the Russian–Syrian offensive codenamed Operation Dawn of Idlib between April 2019 and March 2020. Based on the detailed analysis of relevant speeches and articles given or written by high-ranking Russian and Turkish diplomats, the paper displays how the two states justified their military interventions, defined their own roles, and framed the non-governmental actors involved in the conflicts. According to the conclusion of the author, despite the numerous similarities in their discourses, Turkey and Russia define oppositely, who is, and who is not a terrorist in Syria, which constitutes a major collision point between their geostrategic perspectives.

Standing in the space between fields: The interstitial power of elites in Italian banking foundations

In this article, I explore interstitiality – a concept based on Gil Eyal’s notion of ‘spaces between fields’ – as a potential heuristic lens for observing contemporary elites, applying it to high-ranking figures in the Compagnia San Paolo (CSP). CSP is a banking foundation ( Fondazione di origine bancaria or FOB) that was set up in the 1990s arising from the privatization of the Italian banking sector. After outlining the theoretical underpinnings of interstitiality, I bring the construct to bear on my own empirical work. First, I elucidate what FOBs are and why they may represent a valuable interstitial observatory on a significant segment of power elite. Second, I examine CSP as an emblematic instance of an FOB. Third, I illustrate the main characteristics of CSP’s elites, suggesting that these groups reflect the features of interstitiality insofar as: they merge logics and grammars of justification from different fields; and, given their high degree of mobility across fields, they contribute to disseminating discursive and governmental practices of hybridization. My aim, as advocated for by Mike Savage and Karel Williams, is to enrich the sociological debate on elites by introducing a new conceptual tool.

Rhotic degemination in Sanskrit and the etymology of Vedic ūrú- ‘thigh’, Hittite UZU(u)walla- ‘id.’

This paper examines the absence of geminate -rr- in Sanskrit and argues that the synchronic ban on this sequence results from continued high ranking of an Obligatory Contour Principle constraint against heteromorphemic geminates (inherited from PIE) combined with the substrate influence of Dravidian languages in which the rhotics are non-geminable. New -rr- sequences that arose in Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-Aryan from PIE *-LL- or *-LHL- after loss of the laryngeal and merger of *l with the rhotic were repaired through degemination. This hypothesis predicts a development of PIE *(-)CL̥HLV- to Sanskrit (-)Cī/ūrV- which has not been previously recognized in the treatments of Indic historical phonology. This development is arguably found in mūrá- ‘stupid’ < *mūrra- < *mr̥hx-lo- (cf. Hitt. marlant- ‘stupid’), ūrú- ‘thigh’ < *u̯ūrru- < *(hx)u̯l̥hx-Lu- ← *(hx)u̯l̥hx-Lo- (cf. Hitt. walla- ‘thigh’), śīrá- ‘fervent’ < *śīrrá- < *k̑l̥hx-Ló- (cf. śrā́ya-ti ‘be fervent’), and perhaps in several other examples.