Credit Suisse Securities has sent clients a neat concise report detailing the "hot button" accounting issues for 2011that were discussed at the recent annual AICPA Conference on Current SEC & PCAOB Developments.

The report highlights four major topics: International Convergence, Liquidity, Contingencies and Restoring the Public Trust.

The former chief financial officer and founder and former CEO of Vitesse Semiconductor were charged for their roles in an accounting and securities fraud scheme.

Louis Tomasetta, the co-founder and former CEO and former CFO and Executive Vice President Eugene Hovanec , were charged with securities fraud, making false entries in the books and records of a corporation, making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and conspiracy for their roles in a scheme to manipulate Vitesse's reported financial statements, according to Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Ron Fink wrote back in September about concerns over new accounting rules for revenue recognition doing little more than providing more areas of confusion for investors. 

Under the new rules, companies can book revenue based on estimated sales prices for all the components of "bundled deliverables" all at once instead of on their current fair value. The expectation is that the rule will boost upfront earnings for tech companies whose products combine hardware and software.

Well, on Monday night, Apple made its first quarterly earnings report under the new rules and they certainly gave the tech darling a boost, but it's unclear whether it will ultimately confuse investors. Indeed, they were likely distracted by Apple raking in $3.4 billion in net income for the quarter ended Dec. 26, up 50 percent from a year earlier.