spotlight turns on PricewaterhouseCoopers re: Satyam India's fraudster

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KA10Df02.html



Satyam fraud check switches to PwC


As India's financial world struggles to digest revelations of the US$1.5 billion fraud in software major Satyam Computer Services by the company's founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju, accountants in the financial capital of Mumbai expressed bafflement at how the fraud was not exposed earlier.

"The accounting discrepancies should have been easily detected in the Satyam case," a senior accountant, Feroz Contractor <1>, told Asia Times Online. "It appears from information available in the public domain that basic accounting procedures were not followed."

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Debate in Mumbai is now focusing on whether Satyam, India's fourth-largest computer software company, or its multinational auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), was more to blame for what is possibly corporate India's worst scandal. Discussion with accountants in the city ranging from senior through mid-level to junior levels left little doubt that questions were being asked most of the accounting firm.

-snip-

The New York Stock Exchange has since suspended trading in Satyam stocks, though the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India have said they will not being doing so. By mid-morning in Mumbai, Satyam shares had slumped to 6.3 rupees, bringing the two-day decline to 91%, according to Bloomberg data.

The local unit of PwC said in a statement that Satyam's accounts were supported by "appropriate audit evidence", according to Bloomberg.
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dominoes

[Democrats_win]

1. Fraud Streets will not be fixed until everyone is broke and investing no longer occurs.

Count your blessings, they're worth more than money.

[GoesTo11]

2. That's good news for accounting!

When they allowed Enron (and Harken) to happen, and Anderson failed, the accounting firms actually grew by creating work for themselves through Sarbanes Oxley to have accountants check on the accountants. When they screw up, they win.