No Accounting for Taste as Ernst Lauds Pre-Paid, Nautilus

Now from the "truth is stranger than fiction" file: Pre-Paid Legal (PPD Quote) said Tuesday that Ernst & Young had named Pre-Paid Legal founder Harland Stonecipher its "Regional Master Entrepreneur of the Year." Today, apparently sticking with a theme of sorts, Nautilus(NLS Quote) announced that CEO Brian Cook had been named Ernst & Young's "Pacific Northwest 2002 Entrepreneur of the Year."

So here we are, in an environment focused on the most intense accounting scrutiny, and one of the country's largest remaining CPA firms is giving its seal of approval to Pre-Paid, which has been forced by the SEC to restate its earnings because of the way it accounted for commission advances to its sales force, and Nautilus, whose financial documents are full of inconsistencies and numbers that simply don't add up. (Not that anybody cares!)

Speaking of which, Ernst might want to get its hands on yesterday's 13-page issue of The Eyeshade Report from Forensic Advisors, which raises numerous issues about Nautilus.

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