Has the media forgotten ENRON? AIG? How about the recent SATYAM scandal? I rolled my eyes when I learned that Romney's accounting firm is Price Waterhouse.
Price Waterhouse letter to Mr. and Mrs. Romney, found on www.MittRomney.com website:
Letter from PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, or its predecessor Price Waterhouse LLP, has prepared you annual federal and state income tax returns for each year during the twenty year period 1990 - 2009. We signed each return as preparer.....
Hmmm, who prepared returns for years 2010 & 2011?
A cursory Google search finds many frauds implicating Price Waterhouse spanning decades. Below are some. Notice the PwC frauds are indicated in other countries as well as the United States.
And we are to believe Price Waterhouse?
Price Waterhouse was in thick with Enron, playing with Other People's Money
Enron bosses reaped £6.2m from four-day Centrica sell-off
Enron Direct was sold by Price Waterhouse Coopers to the utility group Centrica last December for £96.4m. To speed up the process, PWC was prepared to offer each manager £440,000 as an incentive to work the long hours involved in the tendering process.
Mitt and Enron have something else in common:
ENRON'S MANY STRANDS: OFFSHORE BANKING; Enron Footprints Revive Old Image of Caymans
The recent disclosure that the Enron Corporation used nearly 700 partnerships registered in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying federal taxes has revived suspicions. A recently signed treaty to exchange tax information with American authorities has been derided by some American prosecutors as a sham because it would not take effect for a few years, which they said would give tax cheats ample time to find another haven.
And then there's Price Waterhouse and AIG
Accountants Missed AIG Group's Red Flags
May 31, 2005 (washingtonpost.com) -- For years, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP gave a clean bill of financial health to American International Group Inc., only to watch the insurance giant disclose a long list of accounting problems this spring.
And Price Waterhouse and CLICO
CL Financial – CLICO scandal: Silence from Price Waterhouse Coopers as forensic investigator Robert Lindquist submits report
“No one is questioning the role of Pricewaterhouse Coopers in this Clico fiasco. PwC consistently signed clean Audit reports for Clico and CIB despite knowing about the inaccurate and fraudulent accounting.
CIB’s accounts for the 2007 year end were signed off on December 3rd 2009, less that 45 days before the company crashed. There was no going concern qualification, or subsequent events note that should have been in the audit report.
Surely PwC knew of the company’s predicament when they signed the accounts!”
Price Waterhouse and Satyam
Satyam: Not The Only Case PwC Worried About
Price Waterhouse India must now submit to intensive oversight by an outside monitor and leadership from outside India as a result of its settlement with the SEC and PCAOB.
Both agencies have reserved the right to bring additional charges if Indian courts find that the firm and its partners, as alleged, colluded with company executives in the fraud.
And this
Tax Shelter of Rich and Famous Has Final Date in Court
And PwC and AM International
Big Accounting Firm Charged With Fraud : Price Waterhouse Hit for AM International Audit
NEW YORK — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse and three of its partners with fraud in connection with accounting abuses at AM International, the Chicago-based maker of duplicating, word-processing and graphics equipment.
The list of fraud cases involving Price Waterhouse, which merged with Coopers Lybrand (who killed Anti-Trust?), is too long to list. However, it's easy to get the gist from the list below.
I found an interesting blog that reports PwC fraud cases:
Keltruth Corp.News Blog of Keltruth Corp. - Miami, Florida, USA.
In this article, there is actually a list.
PwC has other problems besides Nelson’s Canadian $500 million law suit!
Here is the list. After the list is an expanded list, each item with a quote.
July 25, 2008: PwC slapped with a $10 million verdict guilty of negligent misrepresentation in old people’s Nursing Home case.
July 7, 2007: PwC agrees to pay $225M over a multibillion-dollar Tyco accounting fraud case
June, 21 2006: Carrefour SA brings $120 million dollar suit alleging PriceWaterhouseCoopers conspiracy to defraud
March, 29 2006: PwC settles dotcom fraud case
May 10, 2006: PWC Japan unit suspended over Kanebo fraud
Aug 22, 2005: Pricewaterhouse Ordered to Pay $120 Million in Suit
Jan 13,2005: PwC calls it error, Federal Ohio judge talks of fraud
Dec. 18, 2002: Office of the City Attorney, San Francisco, California PwC’s Cover-Up of Fraud
October 05, 2001: PwC pays $51 million to settle audit fraud lawsuit
Articles:
$10 Million Verdict Upheld Against PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Accounting firm loses appeal in case stemming from nursing home company merger - Fulton County Daily Report (USA) July 25, 2008
PwC Settles Tyco Investors’ Suit Over Fraud - By Linda A. Johnson
Associated Press Saturday, July 7, 2007
Carrefour Reveals $120 Million Argentina Fraud Suit vs PwC June, 21 2006
PwC settles dotcom fraud case Independent
Wednesday, 29 March 2006
PWC Japan unit suspended over Kanebo fraud - TOKYO, May 10, 2006 (Reuters) - Asia News TOKYO, May 10, 2006
Pricewaterhouse Ordered to Pay $120 Million in Newark Suit FindArticles - New Verdict Stirs Old Memories - NJBIZ, Aug 22, 2005, by Daks, Martin C
PwC calls it error, judge talks of fraud
New York Times, January 13, 2005 A federal judge in Ohio has found that PwC failed to provide documents and other evidence
Abetting systematic fraud - Office of the City Attorney, San Francisco, California Dec. 18, 2002
PwC pays $51 million to settle audit fraud lawsuit - OUT-LAW News, 10/05/2001
Disclaimer: The above post expresses my own opinions. The quotes are from published sources. I am not familiar with the situations described therein. Some of the quoted sources express unproven allegations. I invite others to express their views, both on my opinions and on the quotes.
"CORPORATIONS ARE PEOPLE, MY FRIENDS"
I'll use the same disclaimer:
Disclaimer:
The above post expresses my own opinions.
The quotes are from published sources.
I am not familiar with the situations described therein.
Some of the quoted sources express unproven allegations.
I invite others to express their views, both on my opinions and on the quotes.