Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce committee said it would issue subpoenas to a recently dismissed partner of Arthur Andersen, the main accounting firm for Enron and the auditor of its questionable financial arrangements.
[Page C1.] Auditor of Hedge Fund Had Ties to Bayou Group Investors who are worried about the fate of the money they turned over to the Bayou Group, a Connecticut firm that is under investigation by federal and state authorities, will not be happy to learn that there were close ties between the firm and the auditor of its hedge funds.
The state comptroller an independent officer elected by the Knesset before being appointed by the president—is responsible only to the Knesset and is the auditor of the government's financial transactions and is empowered to enquire into the efficiency of its activities.
But it also sues BDO Seidman, the American arm of BDO International and the auditor for one of Mr. Merkin's funds, Ascot Partners.
In 2006, two years before the multi-billion pound bailout, there was not a single meeting between the banking regulator, the Financial Services Authority FSAandand the auditors of Northern Rock (which was Pricewaterhouse Coopers) or HBOS (KPMG).
Dave Hartnett, who resigned as Permanent Secretary for Tax at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, will work one day a week for Deloitte, the auditor of Vodafone and Starbucks.
The profession is in this pickle only because Andersen, the auditor of Enron and WorldCom, collapsed in 2002 after its conviction (later overturned) for obstruction of justice.
If so, there will be one primary distinction: Government officials came to regret forcing Andersen, the auditor of Enron and one of the Big Five accounting firms at the time, out of business.
Grant Thornton continued as the auditor of Bonlat and relied on the Bank of America letter for evidence of the Parmalat subsidiary's assets until, in mid-December 2003, Bank of America said that the document had been forged: the cash simply did not exist.
The provision at issue would impose American regulatory jurisdiction, including that of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a new accounting oversight board established by the bill, over any company whose shares are listed in the United States and over the auditors of those companies.
And last month the auditors of BIHL resigned after saying they did not receive "consistent, reliable and complete" information from the company.
