US$8billion dollar fraud by United State banker, Allen Stanford. The scam is widely perceived as Allen Stanford utilising the ill-regulated offshore banking industry in Antigua.
Stanford financial group has allegedly offerred US$8bilion worth of certificates of deposits that promised unreasonably high interest rate. CAS Hewlett, Antigua-based accountancy firm is the auditor. Unfortunately, the where-about of the chief executive is unknown.
CAS Hewlett gave unqualified audit opinion to the statutory account of Stanford.
Nevertheless, what regulators concern are the representation of the bank, as quoted below:
'The defendants have misrepresented to CD purchasers that their deposits are safe, falsely claiming that the bank re-invests client funds primarily in 'liquid' financial instruments (the portfolio); monitors the portfolio through a team of 20-plus analysts; and is subject to yearly audits by Antiguan regulators.'
Monday, February 23, 2009
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2 comments:
Seems like CAS Hewlett may not have had the resources to audit such a big fund ($8billion). Are there any rules governing the size of the audit firm in comparison to the size of the fund or corporation they are auditing? I'm new to the blog and look forward to hearing from you.
Hi Clip,
It's glad to hear from you. As at this moment, there's no rules governing the size of the audit firm in comparison to the size of the fund or corporation yet.
It's up to the investor, bankers and all other stakeholders to judge the integrity and competency of the audit firms.
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