Saturday, January 25, 2020

Essays --

Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex is believed to be one of the best classical examples of the Greek classical order and what tragedy represents. Many Greek tragedies include a central character that is known to be the â€Å"tragic hero†. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus the main character plays this role. This paper will give a brief summary of some of the characteristics of a tragic hero, while also analyzing all the major events that lead to Oedipus rise and downfall. Oedipus, the king of Thebe’s tragedy modelled Aristotle’s theorizing’s of what tragedy is in his book the Poetics. The play has a very well-constructed plot that follows Greek classical order. Aristotle and subsequent critics have labeled Oedipus the ideal tragic hero. A brief summary of the play: Oedipus is the son of the King and the Queen of Thebes. The king Laius learns from an oracle that his son will grow up to murder him and marry his wife. Horrified at the prophecy Laius sends his son to be killed to avoid the prophecy from becoming true. The servant pity’s the baby and gives the child to someone else who then gives it to their king and queen who were unable to have children. Oedipus grows up and goes to the oracle who then tells him about the prophecy. Afraid of what might happen he leaves the kingdom trying to avoid the prophecy as well. While on the road he crosses paths with a group of males and get into a confrontation, the fight escalates and Oedipus kills them not knowing that one of them is Laius his father. He continues and arrives at Thebes and sees that a sphinx has taken the city hostage. He resolved the riddle of the sphinx, which had been killing the young men of Thebes. By solving the riddle he became highly praised b y the city of Thebes. As... ... parents. His initial intention was to relieve Oedipus from his fears of the prophecy; instead the results prove to be contradictory to his initial intent. The messenger provides him with critical information that immediately reveals to Oedipus that he was not successful in preventing the prophecy his actions lead him right into it. As Aristotle recommends, this is directly connected to the anagnorisis, for the messenger and the herdsman are the missing link to Oedipus true story. The messenger enables him to â€Å"recognize† his true identity, he gains the initial knowledge he lacked. The peripeteia and anagnorisis changes Oedipus fortune. His good fortune turns out to be a catastrophe that leads to suffering. His actions will be considered a setback of his intentions, and each of them will give him more insight of the truth that will eventually lead to his downfall.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Parmalat Accounting Scandal Essay

Summary After eluding financial analysts and investors for a long time, Parmalat went bankrupt later in December, 2003 and many of their board of directors have been arrested since then. Here is a brief summary of the events: In the late 1980’s, Parmalat’s financial situation was poor due to investment in side businesses. i.e. TV network, Parmatur, football teams (Palmeiras, Parma, etc). Cash siphoning through these companies was estimated to be total of â‚ ¬ 10 Bn. In 1990, Parmalat went public which enabled them to tap into the capital markets. Early 1990’s, the company began to acquire dairy producers around the world in order to try to hide the growing debt. Parmalat entered into a series of bond issuances and securitization of receivables to generate cash. A series of other fraudulent accounting practices occurred during the following years. In December 2003, Parmalat was not able to make a U$ 150MM bond payment and raised the attention of the entire market. When the fraud was brought up, Calisto Tanzi (Parmalat founder) and Fausto Tonna (CFO) was arrested along with another 10 individuals. Grant Thornton and Deloitte & Touchà © were Parmalat’s accounting firms during the last 2 decades. Partners of both firms were charged for fraudulent activity. Case analysis From the analysis we made, there are several items that can be appointed as accounting principle violation: A) Overstatement of Assets Assets Selling: Parmalat sold firms to private entities and individuals to re-buy it later in a fake operation, as the money came from other offshore entities just to create liquidity in the books; thanks to that, they could keep issuing bonds to cover their debts Accountable Receivables recognition: Double billing the Italian supermarkets and other retail customers Fake bank accounts: false document have been created to prove the existence of â‚ ¬ 3,9 Bn cash at Bank of America. Again, with more liquidity, more easily got the loans B) Overstatement of revenues Revenue Recognition: False income sales through its offshore companies C) Understatement of liabilities Debt eliminating: Parmalat reduced approximately Euro 3.3 Bn of debt. Misclassification of liabilities: describing sales of receivables as non-recourse, when the company maintained obligation to ensure payment. Proper accounting practices that should have been used A) Assets The firm recognizes revenue when the transaction meets both of the following conditions: 1. Completion of the earnings process: the seller has done all (or nearly all) that is promised to do for the customer. That is, the seller has delivered all (or nearly all) of the goods and services it has agreed to provide 2. Receipt of assets from the customer: The seller has received cash or some other asset that it can convert to cash, for example, by collecting an account receivable Accountable receivables recognition (billing twice) In this case, Parmalat generated double accounts receivable for the same operation billing both, their distributors and the final customer. The revenue from the final customers was recognized on the books, but the billing for the distributors were considered as transfer and accounted for credit owed. Revenue recognition What happened here is that the seller never done what was written in the books, as the operation never existed and customer never received the goods. B) Liabilities Debt Eliminating Parmalat eliminated paid down debt by a series of capital market transactions, mainly bond issuances and sale of receivables. These financing transactions were made possible by overstating their assets. Misclassification of liabilities Parmalat misclassified the financing transaction of selling their receivables. Although, Parmalat sold its receivables (assets) to financial institutions/investors, they were not a true non-recourse sale and Parmalat maintained obligation to ensure that the receivables were ultimately paid, therefore Parmalat should have classified this financing as a liability.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Answers on Questions Concerning Law Issues Free Essay Example, 2000 words

11) Were these offences summary offences or indictable offences? (1 mark) All of the offences were indictable. 12) How did the trial judge define suspicion (3 marks) According to the judge of the first instance of the case, a suspicion is an act of suspecting one or to imagine without proof or tiny evidence about something to be true. But any hint or slight idea that an act of criminal conduct is in progress is adequate enough to be used against one in their offence. 13) a) How did the counsel for the Appellant wish to extend the ground on which he was given leave to appeal? (2 marks) The counsel of the appellant wished to leave to appeal on the ground of passage the definition of suspicion was given. b) Did the Court accept the counsel s argument? (1 mark) No, it didn t. The Court dismissed it because it could not be justified by their argument. c) Why did the court refer to section 93C of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? (2 marks) Because in 93A (1) the word reasonable grounds for suspicion has not been spelt or was not contained in that section. We will write a custom essay sample on Answers on Questions Concerning Law Issues or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page