EY did not request Wirecard bank statements for 3 years [Financial Times] For more than three years, EY did not request crucial information from a Singapore bank account where Wirecard claimed it had up to a billion euros in cash, a routine audit procedure that could have uncovered the huge fraud in the payment group. German. [T]The auditor between 2016 and 2018 did not directly check with OCBC Bank of Singapore to confirm that the lender had large amounts of cash on behalf of Wirecard. Instead, EY relied on documents and screenshots provided by an external administrator and Wirecard.
Electronic card auditors say “elaborate” fraud left billions missing [Bloomberg] Wirecard AG’s longtime auditors Ernst & Young accused their client of “an elaborate and sophisticated fraud” that led to the disappearance of more than $ 2 billion. Now that Wirecard has applied for judicial protection from creditors, the accountants who signed the fintech firm’s books for a decade are rejecting responsibility for their role in the debacle and preparing for the inevitable spate of lawsuits.
Survey finds that CPA companies fell, but not outside, of COVID-19 [Accounting Today] Inovautus surveyed 109 companies and received 95 unique responses. Of the companies surveyed, 31% had revenues between $ 10 million and $ 30 million, 16% had incomes greater than $ 30 million, and another 16% of companies had incomes less than $ 1 million.
Accounting and auditing application activity decreases slightly in 2019 [National Law Review] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Business Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) publicly disclosed 81 combined accounting and auditing enforcement actions during 2019, slightly less than a year earlier, according to a Cornerstone Research report released today. The monetary settlements totaled approximately $ 628 million, of which $ 626 million was enforced by the SEC.
Its peer review has been extended, now what? [Journal of Accountancy] The AICPA Peer Review Board (PRB) has given CPA companies with original expiration dates between January 1 and September 30 a six-month delay option for review of pairs to provide relief during the coronavirus pandemic. If your company was a beneficiary of this extension, you should have received an email from the peer review program. Please note, however, that delay is not a license to ignore peer review responsibilities.
EY and PwC face investigation into mini bond audits [FTAdvisor] The Financial Information Board today [June 24] Announced that it was investigating three audits conducted by Oliver Clive & Co, PwC, and EY. The investigations concern audits conducted between 2015 and 2017, years before London Capital & Finance went into administration in January 2019, owing more than £ 230 million and putting the funds of more than 14,000 bondholders at risk.
Deloitte CEO Praises His Mastery Of The Big 4 As Company Tackles Thousands [Consulting.us] Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen has put his foot firmly in his mouth, praising his company’s “undisputed” financial dominance. Comments come at a delicate time: More than 10,000 people have been kicked out of their international operations, surely leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of many employees who are now former employees.
The trainee accountant was fired from KPMG after accusing his boss of ‘mansplaining’ and showing him his bra when he asked him to wear smarter clothes for work, filling containers with free food and taking over a meeting room as his own private office. [Daily Mail] Zhihui Lu, 26, joined KPMG as an audit assistant in 2015 after graduating from Durham with a degree in accounting and finance, but within two years the bosses voiced concerns about his performance and erratic behavior. On one occasion, Miss Lu asked manager Matt Brunton, “Who was he as a man to tell you what she can and cannot use?” after she appeared in the London Canary Wharf firm’s office wearing jeans and a sweater.
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