Singapore regulators investigating Noble’s auditor Ernst and Young. This
is not unusual as the big four auditors, Deloitte, KPMG, PWC, and EY
were also under probe in the UK according to a Bloomberg report. Below
are a few paras of a report by Bloomberg on MAS’ investigating EY after
the fall from grace of Noble, once a hot favourite of punters in the
Singapore Exchange. Its share price had fallen to a few miserable cents
and the stock has been suspended from trading pending a refinancing and
restructuring exercise to save the company.
‘Noble’s accounting has been in focus since early 2015, when
a previously unknown group called Iceberg Research started
criticizing the company, saying it had inflated the value of
long-term commodity contracts and carried billions of dollars in
profits on its books that would eventually have to be written
down.
Since then, the once $12 billion company has lost billions
in value, reduced to a rump by untenable debt and writedowns --
including on many of the contracts that Iceberg had been
criticizing.
"You see repeated clean audits, and then suddenly you have
these big writedowns," Lee Boon Ngiap, assistant managing
director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, told Bloomberg.
"That’s something regulators will pay attention to – and move to
ask questions, press more."’ Bloomberg
The blind faith in western auditing firms is another angmoh tua kee
thing. Anything western must be good, no need to question, sure to be
done professionally and honestly. One of these firms was the auditor of
the AHTC accounts and the cross examinations in court revealed many
loopholes and personal opinions that were anything but factual from
rubbish heads.
Not only auditing firms, the western banks were reputed to be highly
professionally run, with impeccable records, transparent and
unquestionable trust in what they said until the banking crisis when all
the top western banks, reporting billions and billions of profits,
suddenly declared insolvent. How could this happen, cooking the books
all the years, hazy accounting and management practices, the biggest
money launderers, but not discovered by the reputable auditors?
When reading the glorious reports of billions of dollars of profits by
the local banks, the scenario of the collapse of western banks keeps
appearing in my mind. So similar, would they be adopting the same hide
and seek accounting? Are they using the same auditing firms? Hopefully
not as Singapore is reputed to have the strictest banking regulations
under the watchful eyes of our incorruptible and most conscientious
regulators.
The western media too were taken as the publishers of truth,
unquestionable truth, and accepted as the authority of all news and
information in their prints. Today every one of these western media are
churning out fake news and disinformation. Unfortunately silly bananas
would still regard them as the messengers to truth, nothing but the
truth despite Trump, the US President, discrediting every one of them as
untrustworthy. Would the lies and rubbish churned out by the western
media be accepted as the truth and would not be questioned by our
ministry in charge of fake news and disinformation?
Is there anything left in the West that is honourable, worthy of being
trustworthy and reliable and not cheats, conmen, tricksters and liars?
19 comments:
Only very few auditors went to jail for misleading public all these years. Auditing should be a public function.
No top bankers go to jail for fraud, money laundering or cooking the books.
Right b.
The Auditors auditing their clients with hefty billing charges
Will just kept mum year in year out even they were to discover discrepancies.
That's why so many Frauds are only exposed when things really come to a head and Court cases are been sued or heard in Courts.
But when they were instructed by the Authority or Big Sticks that can harmed their license to audit a Company or Organisation that the Authority or Big Stick to victimise that Company or Organisation, they will audit with fine combs to their accounts and tried level best to find some even trival loophole to kill them.
One good example is the AHTC case.
They even gave false statements until questioned by the Defence lawyers and chwee tuck lan. (Mouth stuck with their own balls)
That's why the Auditors when revealed in Court cases of not doing their fudicary duties or cover up for their clients should be also send to jail.
This will wake them up instead of just Gaji Buta in their Auditing Fees.
But sadly, skunks professionals will always cover their skunk professionals backsides as One Judge said cannot jail them as then no one will be WILLING to be Auditors.
Their own auditors said our duties NOT to discover frauds.Then auditing for what or for fark?
Companies accounting staff are been send to jail unfairly just because they are been accused of been accomplices to their Bosses in frauds or CBT cases.
Unfortunately they as employees are just obeying their Bosses instructions.
Some may know of these acts but some innocently do not.
Fine example the City Harvest case. The Accounts Manager served the sentence unfairly as she is also deemed as an accomplice and in a Senior Position.
As for that Finanicial Chief, clearly she knew what's the ongoing.
So, if Accounting Staff in Companies can be send to jail, why NOT the Audodors?
Arw they a Special Breed or with Immunity.
They have good for too long.
@ Capitalism needs police and the police need to be policed themselves
Arthur Andersen LLP one of the biggest accountants went kaput in 2002 because they were dishonest fraudulent fuckers. They got caught diddling the books for World Com, Enron and others. If you search and see what they got up to and how they did it, you'll get angry. When you discover that they were LAUGHING and JOKING as they willfully perpetrated the frauds you'll be excused for being outraged and want to hate capitalism for all its evil excesses and criminal behaviour. 😠ðŸ˜
Thankfully the capitalist system has its POLICE. Not the govt regulators who tend to be themselves corrupted or woefully INCOMPETENT or asleep at the wheel, but SHORT SELLERS like Carson Block, James Chanos, Carl Ichan and others. They consistently beat the govt regulators at discovering frauds in public companies, blow the whistle (which is usually ignored by the authorities whose job it is to keep The Game honest), and back up their talk by ACTION: they short the frauds like nobody's business, and make lots of money if they're successful.
There are other people too. Like forensic accountant Harry Markopolos who discovered the Ponzi fraud of Bernie Madoff. He too was ignored by the authorities.
Now that Arthur Andersen has been purged from the planet, the world is down to “The Big 4” which should be trusted by NOBODY, especially if you are a capitalist and know about “caveat emptor”, and are aware that if you have money, you attract predators.
People complain that capitalism is full of bad shit, and they are right. But like everything, you can't reduce an abstraction to a single concept. Without capitalism we won't be living in our modern world with all its benefits and ability to sustain life and increase lifespan. Even BROKEN capitalism is much better than NO capitalism at all.
Security comes from CONSTANT VIGILANCE. Everyone needs to be a “police man” and whistleblow on companies and individuals who are out to cheat the system and STEAL from others. Jho Low would have been caught earlier if there was more PUBLIC vigilance and swift action. One of The Big 4 (you can find out which one, I'm not getting sued) were caught aiding and abetting Jho Low's scam.
Just like life in general, you'll never catch all the bad guys and make the world perfect and 100% “crime free”; you won't clean up capitalism to make it 100% fraud free. Humans are humans, whatever The Game, some players will try to game The Game. That's just life. You need POLICE. The police need to be policed. Everyone has SKIN IN THE GAME.
I've whistleblown twice already. One fella was thrown in jail (Singapore) and another arrested at the border trying to flee (Australia). I have a few friends who are excellent forensic accountants who are honest to a fault.
Glenn Knight is a terrific corporate investigator. Sadly, he messed up, and paid the huge price. I'm still confused at why this chap “strayed from the path of righteousness”, when he was such a success. He busted Pan Electric and UOB. He struck fear in the hearts of CFOs and CEOs. He was (I believe still is) our best corporate cop and IMO should be on the front line of the 1MDB investigation. He's not a friend, although I've met him twice...I don't think he remembers me, that's cool. Nonetheless I admire his track record, even though he fucked up badly.
Fake accounting is necessary for money laundering, cooking the books and embezzlement. City Harvest Church comes to mind. Fake news is weaponised by Trump against his critics and detractors. Conveniently used by Uncle Sam to go to war against Iraq for possessing WMD. Used by Canada to kidnap Sabrina Meng. Propaganda and brainwashing used MSM and Social media as platforms to disinform and misinform. Small wonder cognitive dissonance is on the rise. No one can beat Najib at fake accounting and fake news. His wealth came from generous donations.
Is there anything left anywhere that is honourable, worthy of being trustworthy and reliable and not cheats, conmen, tricksters and liars?
@ 1115, cheer up it's worse than you think, but also BETTER than you can imagine:
There are good and bad people everywhere. Good people can go bad, bad people can become good. In every human being there are many facets of character, and triggers form the mind or from the environment and relationships can do all sorts of wierd and wonderful or terrible things.
We are all part of the human race. The MARKET connects us all. We OUTSOURCE everything from our food to our clothes, even our political decisions and finances. 🙃 These ideas are both scary and wonderful at the same time. Anything goes---the good stuff and bad. Sometimes strangers perform random acts of kindness. At other times the practice targeted acts of brutality. 🤣
Good behaviour, bad behaviour...everyone lies, everyone also tells the truth. There's shit everywhere and also beauty.
So how is one supposed to live? Ah...people have been asking that for millennia, and so far, there's lots of "answers", but none of them 100% definitive. So fuck it, make up your own "formula". You don't need permission...even if you live in Singapore 😎
Anonymous said...
Is there anything left anywhere that is honourable, worthy of being trustworthy and reliable and not cheats, conmen, tricksters and liars?
December 16, 2018 11:15 am
Yes, in Singapore we still have the most honest, honourable and incorruptible politicians, plentiful of them. Thank God, or else this world would be so dark that we would not be able to see the light.
Yes! Sg!
Sg is the BEST-esT!
We are the world!
@ Lucky to be Singaporean,
Actually I believe that the SG.gov is honest and in the global context, have robust checks against fraud. I give it 80% rating… Good, but always can improve.
That being said, the PAP is fucking annoying and arrogant. But they do obey the law, although they know how to “interpret” it.
The PAP: corrupt? No. Yaya papaya make people tu lan: 100% absolutely. Should they be thrown out for being pains in the arses, IMO absolutely. I don't mind a bit of corruption in govt. It can be efficient because of the “arbitrage”... you want something done? You bribe some govt official (the premium), and it's done; move on with your life lah. Corrupt govts tend to be “tidak apa relac lah brudder” which means MORE FREEDOM, as found in corrupt cuntries like China, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Just bribe, and you can be shiok.
PAP has gotten WAY TOO yaya. Time to go. Fuck off and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
A little bit of corruption is ok. You can speed, you can smoke, you can drink and you certainly can fuck (with consent). Just bribe your way out if caught, and enjoy. Corrupt cuntries also pay their govt small money, which creates “arbitrage opportunity” in the market for “getting things done”.
PAP out, let's enjoy more freedom and a little more (not too much!) corruption. I'm perfectly ok with that.
A little corruption in govt is ok. Any corruption in commerce is not ok. It's a sweet spot, but I believe attainable. Look at China… Business is done by GUANXI without govt, the shit still works, had been working forever and continues to work. GUANXI is the best police for the market place because your REPUTATION counts.
Fuck the govt. Go long on GUANXI.
We Singapore has the greatest PM in the world - because he's the highest-paid PM in the world so definitely he must be the greatest in the world.
Thank God we are in Singapore !! Hallelujah !!
Auditors audit the books of companies.
Who audit the auditors?
Will auditors tell the truth or keep mum if they find irregularities in the accounts of entities that are untouchable or well connected?
What have the auditors to say about the accounting of reserves that needed 50 years to calculate? If the reserves cannot be calculated, how can the accounts be a fair and accurate view of the state of affairs of the entity under audit?
The other thing is that there are claims that companies can do window dressing of the accounts at year end to show a glowing picture of the company's health. What is the function of auditors in such instances? Is their responsibility be towards the interest of the company or the public having dealings with it?
@ 213
You are confusing apples with durains lah. The reserves are NOT for public knowledge. The true amounts are "state secrets" to prevent speculators from attacking Singapore's economy and currency. The govt has been very clear on this. If you refer to the constitution, The President is responsible and the ultimate over-seer of the nation's financials.
With public companies it is different. They must file their financial reports. The most effective way to catch financial fraud is having a vigilant public. People with nothing better to do than to go thru public companies financials with a fine toothed comb using publicly available data. That's how Madoff got caught. The authorities completely missed it. That's how the Mortgage Backed Security market got busted too...it was members of the public (private investors) who spotted the scams. Again, the authorities completely missed it.
Unless you get an insider whistle blower, govt financials are based on "trust". If you pechah lobang like Edward Snowden, you are a criminal and will be hunted down and treated like a TRAITOR.
But if you bust a public or private company, you actually make the world a better place.
The immutable trope here is that you should trust your govt but mistrust public and other public non-govt organisations (like charities) as far as financials go. It is a fucking mental idea. No one is above scrutiny if they are responsible for other peoples' money or the money of a cuntry. Everyone should be subject to the same standards.
Trust no one. Always VERIFY.
Anon 2.13
Auditors just goes round and check the Companies that feed them.
Accounting staff does the Accounting donkey works and let these with even lesser booking knowledge than them frightened the shits out of them.
Most asked stuid questions as they do not know different sets of different companies businesses.
Yet they shits scared of their imbeciles questionings.
Even they bring up discrepancies or frauds, their Heads amongst themselves will iron out the discrepancies.
The Head Auditors even advised them to have loopholes to evade the frauds.
All these for their business hefty auditing fees.
Just certify without prejudice or in our opinion fair and favourable accounting records and that is.
No further queries from revelant Authorities hosay liao made a pile liao.
Time for happy hours.
Not only Western audit firms, but also Western rating firms like S&P, Fitch, Moody's, etc. Remember US subprime crisis ?
@ all
Please lah. The Chinese-owned (by China nationals) FRANCHISES of "The Big Four" accounting firms are a bunch of dirty motherfuckers who have been doing shit with governments and corporations (all pay BIG fees) for a long time and have been caught, and fined.
Here's more: Knock yourself out lah!
The Big 4 "exported" their toxic brand and cultures to China. China is already a place where if you're doing business you'd better be "caveat emptor". Many Singaporeans kena "makan" in China, including our own highly-paid "smart" government. Now Chinese "opportunists" can have the "Big 4 Brands" to add a petina of "trustworthiness" and "professionalism".
In finance, trust no one, no government, no cuntry. Verify and check again. People in finance are whip-smart. But honesty....hmmm
In the financial world, any information that is free is useless.
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