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’Dick Fuld and E&Y fail to dismiss Repo 105 case [updated]
It’s been a day of important Lehman Brothers legal verdicts.
On Wednesday morning in New York, the US District Court in Manhattan rejected a move by former Lehman Brothers executives and auditors to dismiss litigation brought by investors who allege they were misled by the bank’s Repo 105 practices.
Sino-Forest – a defence [updated]
Along with RBC Dominion Securities, Dundee Securities has been the biggest cheerleader for Sino-Forest, the Toronto-listed Chinese forestry operator accused of a massive fraud.
And while it’s put its rating and target price under review ($C34 a share if you were wondering) it still believes Sino-Forest will be exonerated once the independent committee files its report.
A $4.2bn question for Sino-Forest Corporation
By Stacy-Marie Ishmael, FT Tilt and John McDermott, FT Alphaville
(For the most recent version of this post, and subsequent updates see FT Tilt)
Muddy Waters Research, a specialist in Chinese companies,
Cuomo’s coruscating complaint
Who ever said legalese was dull?
The complaint filed by Andrew Cuomo is a ripsnorting romp through the sordid business of Repo 105.
The main allegations against E&Y are well known via Anton Valukas’s March 2010 report into Lehman’s bankruptcy,
Cuomo files suit against Ernst & Young [updated]
It’s official — Repo 105 will have its day in court (flash from Reuters):
Accounting firm Ernst & Young was sued by New York regulators on Tuesday, accused of helping to hide financial risks at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc before the Wall Street firm’s 2008 collapse.
Jobs and the City…
Whether you’re an increasingly impecunious chief executive at a mid-ranked UK company, or one of the City’s increasingly flush “AVPs” (assistance vice-presidents), some – interestingly timed – reports on Monday are telling us a few things.
The expedited Audit
Accounting-geeks (like us) might remember that at the start of last year there was much discussion as to whether Britain’s big four auditing firms — PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG — would be able to sign off the 2008 end-of-year accounts of the country’s beleaguered banks.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Or, the FSA on auditors
Here’s a discussion paper to strike fear into the hearts of prompt debate among audit firms — another analysis of their failings in the banking crisis, carried out by the UK’s financial regulator, the FSA.
Does Moody’s fancy itself an auditor?
Repo 105 and the role played by Ernst & Young has once more focussed attention on the small world of international accountancy.
Inevitably, the allegations against the firm — as detailed by the FT – invoked ‘dark memories of Enron’ and other instances of creative accounting.
A future ‘Big Three’?
Here’s where we currently stand in the overly consolidated world of international accountancy.
Firms ranked by revenues:
Price Waterhouse Coopers Lybrand Ross Montgomery
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Ernst & Young settles Akai case
Ernst & Young on Wednesday agreed to make an undisclosed “substantial payment” to liquidators of Hong Kong’s biggest ever bankruptcy, after admitting that certain audit documents were no longer reliable.
Buyout market shrinking, report
The difficult environment facing buy-out groups will be underlined on Monday by the publication of an Ernst & Young study that shows realisations from big European buy-outs slowed to a trickle last year.
[The Stanford Series] “The investors ought not have to pay for the receiver’s PR firm”
Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver administering the affairs of the Stanford group of companies, is not a popular man.
The SEC has hotly protested his requests to recoup millions of dollars in fees and expenses for his work (and that of his army of lawyers and forensic accountants) unravelling the structure and accounts of the Stanford companies.
Accounting firms drawn into Madoff scandal
Top accounting firms were hoodwinked by Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50bn fraud as well as several top banks and some of the world’s biggest hedge fund investors, according to lists of service providers to Madoff-linked funds.
Ernst & Young on standby for Sigma
Ernst & Young is on standby to act as receiver to Sigma Finance, the collapsed $27bn debt vehicle, say people close to the matter, although there is uncertainty about when an appointment could be made.
UK struggles in private equity markets
The UK was the worst performer of the world’s four biggest private equity markets last year, according to Ernst & Young research on the 100 biggest companies sold by buy-out firms in 2007. The UK’s biggest private equity exits,
Former E&Y partner on insider charge
A former Ernst & Young partner has been charged by US prosecutors with passing on insider trading information to a friend at a Pennsylvania investment banking firm ahead of seven deals involving the accounting firm’s clients,
E&Y merges partnerships
Ernst & Young is to launch the biggest shake-up of the professional services industry since the collapse of Arthur Andersen by merging its European partnerships and integrating a further 42 countries into a single unit.
For Ernst & Young’s partners, it’s SWF bonanza time
A huge vote of confidence in the outlook for M&A activity in 2008 comes from Ernst & Young UK, which says it will admit more partners this year than in any previous years, many to work on international deals,
Debt will unravel private equity, says E&Y
Debt-laden private equity deals will begin to unravel over the next year, reports the Guardian, citing insolvency experts at Ernst & Young. The complexity of transactions and the timing of debt repayments
China warned on takeover rules
Ernst & Young on Tuesday called on Beijing to reassess the recently introduced rules on foreign takeovers of local companies amid signs that regulatory uncertainty has been holding back investments in Chinese venture capital deals.