雅佳控股(0448) v. KasikornBank PCL: costs
1 :
GS(14)@2011-01-22 17:47:27http://legalref.judiciary.gov.hk ... IS=74888&currpage=T
2 :
GS(14)@2011-01-22 17:47:51http://maxpayne0594.blog.163.com ... 442009824112239855/
由Andrea Tan及Mark Lee報導
9月23日 彭博社
日前，安永香港會計師行與雅佳控股公司（Akai Holdings Ltd.）的清盤人達成庭外和解，並在發現其中部分該公司審計檔案“無法綵信”後，將一位合夥人除名。安永香港今日在以電子郵件形式發布的一份聲明中稱，安永香港在該消費電子廠商清盤人提起文書造假的訴訟後，即對本所的該審計項目展開了內部調查。雅佳控股於2000年結業，欠下債務人11.1億美元債務，成爲香港最大的公司破産清盤案。
安永在聲明中表示：“調查發現，由於該項目經理2000年初的行爲，部分1998及1999年對雅佳進行審計時完成的特定檔案已無法再作爲依據，” 同時亦提到有一位前任雇員涉案。該會計師行稱已知會相關監管機構，但未披露遭除名的合夥人身份，亦未有指明和解涉及的賠償金額。
上週，安永香港就保華國際（Borelli Walsh Ltd.）提出的指控，在法庭上進行了辯護。保華國際作爲雅佳的清盤人，指控安永在1997～1999年對雅佳控股執行審計的期間人爲篡改了相關文件。在遞交法庭的文件裏，清盤人提出將就“數以億美元計的”損失，向這家總部在美國紐約、所謂“四大”之一的會計師行的香港分部索償。
“重要的檔案”
“這些據稱被人爲篡改的檔案具有關鍵作用；隨著它們可信度的喪失，安永防綫的核心也隨之而去了。”總部設在香港的Gall & Lane商業法律事務所一位合夥人Jeff Lane對此評論道，“庭外和解或許不可避免。”Gall & Lane不代表其中任何一方。
根據保華國際以傳真方式發布的聲明，保華國際與安永以未經披露的“具有實質性意義的”賠償金額達成了庭外和解。律師們透露，對此案的庭審始於9月 16日，原計劃進行6個月，是亞洲最大的針對獨立核數師的訴訟案之一。而對安永的法律行動則始於2004年。保華國際執行董事Cosimo Borelli在聲明中稱：“庭外和解的結果將節省相當可觀的成本及法律資源。”
庭審開始時，保華國際的代表、大律師Leslie Kosmin先生曾表示，安永對雅佳控股的1994年年度審計檔案資料中出現了非安永雇員的筆迹，直至其1998年受僱安永。隨後他又指這些僞造的檔案 “洞穿”了安永的辯辭。他還透露，某些該公司審計文檔的電子版本在歸檔多年後遭人爲篡改，添加額外信息。
“非常嚴重”
香港注册會計師公會執行長Winnie Cheung在今日的電話採訪中表示，這些指控“非常嚴重”。 她說，如果這些不當行爲得到證實的話，監管機構可能將會施加懲罰。她同時透露，安永香港目前正在配合公會的調查。安永遠東區主管合夥人孫德基同時亦在聲明中稱，“我們對此未預見到的後果感到失望。”上月，保華國際贏得對一家泰國商業銀行Kasikornbank的訴訟，就其3000萬美元、預定以雅佳的股份交換的貸款獲賠2,250萬美元及相應的利息。這家香港聯交所上市公司於2003年重組，更名為漢登集團控股有限公司，並在單獨出售股份後轉型成爲服裝零售商。
在巔峰時期，雅佳控股僱有10,000名員工，年銷售額400億港元（52億美元），旗下品牌包括美國“勝家”牌縫紉機。其出生於上海、畢業於加拿大的主席James Ting2005年因會計造假入獄六年，後因控方差錯於第二年獲釋。本案為“保華國際（强制清盤中）訴 安永香港案”，編號HCLL 29/2004，由高等法院原訟法庭審理。[轉譯自彭博財經]雅佳（Akai）案安永達成和解，一合夥人遭除名（第3次更新） - maxpayne0594 - Call of Duty
欲聯繫本新聞報導記者Andrea Tan（星加坡）與Mark Lee Wai Yee（香港），請分別發送郵件至
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最後更新時間：美國東部時間 2009年9月23日上午5:42
Ernst & Young Settles Akai Case, Suspends Partner (Update3)
By Andrea Tan and Mark Lee
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg)
Accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP’s Hong Kong office settled a lawsuit with the liquidators of Akai Holdings Ltd. and suspended a partner after finding some documents in its auditing of Akai couldn’t be “relied on.” Ernst & Young Hong Kong started an internal investigation into its audits of Akai after the liquidator of the consumer electronics company accused it of using false documents, the accounting firm said in an e-mailed statement today. Akai went out of business in 2000, owing creditors about $1.11 billion in Hong Kong’s biggest corporate failure.
“This investigation has made clear that certain documents produced for the audits in 1998 and 1999 could no longer be relied on due to the action of the audit manager in early 2000,” Ernst & Young said in the statement, adding that a former employee may also have been involved. The firm said it has informed the relevant regulatory body and didn’t identify the partner who was suspended or specify the settlement amount.
Ernst & Young’s Hong Kong unit last week defended claims from Borrelli Walsh Ltd., Akai’s liquidator, that it breached its obligations as an auditor for Akai from 1997 and 1999 and allegedly altered documents. The liquidator said in court documents it was seeking “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damages from the Hong Kong office of New York-based Ernst & Young, one of the so-called Big Four accounting firms.
‘Critical Documents’
“The importance of the documents that were said to be tampered with was critical and with these documents discredited in evidence the core of EY’s defense was removed,” said Jeff Lane, a partner at Hong Kong-based Gall & Lane, a commercial litigation law firm. “A settlement was perhaps made inevitable.” Gall & Lane doesn’t represent either party.
Borrelli Walsh and Ernst & Young settled the case for an undisclosed “substantial” amount, according to a faxed statement from the liquidator. The trial, which started Sept. 16 and had been scheduled to run for six months, was one of Asia’s biggest against an auditor, lawyers said. Litigation against Ernst & Young started in 2004. “Very significant costs and court resources will be saved as a result of the settlement,” Cosimo Borrelli, managing director of Borrelli Walsh, said in the statement.
Ernst & Young’s audit documents from 1994 contained handwriting from an auditor who was not employed by Ernst & Young until 1998, Leslie Kosmin, a lawyer for Borrelli Walsh said at the trial’s opening. The allegedly falsified documents “permeated the defense” case that was prepared by Ernst & Young, he said then. Electronic versions of some documents had been altered with the addition of information years after the documents had been dated, Kosmin said then.
‘Very Serious’
The allegations are “very serious,” Winnie Cheung, chief executive of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, said by phone today. The regulator may take disciplinary action if wrongdoing was proved, she said. Ernst & Young is co-operating with the institute’s enquires, Cheung said.
“We are dismayed by the unexpected circumstances that have arisen,” David Sun, Ernst & Young co-area managing partner of the Far East, said in the firm’s statement. Last month, Borrelli Walsh won $22.5 million as well as interest and costs after it sued Thailand’s Kasikornbank Pcl. over a $30 million loan pledged against Akai shares. The Hong Kong company was restructured in 2003 and renamed Hang Ten Group Holdings Ltd., a clothing retailer, after a separate share sale.
Akai at its peak employed 100,000 workers and had annual sales of HK$40 billion ($5.2 billion) with brands including Singer Sewing Machine Co. of the U.S. Its Shanghai-born, Canadian-educated owner James Ting, jailed for six years for false accounting in 2005, was freed the following year because of errors in the prosecution’s case. The case is Akai Holdings Ltd. (In Compulsory Liquidation) v. Ernst & Young (A Hong Kong Firm), HCCL 29/2004, Court of First Instance.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Tan in Singapore at
[email protected]; Mark Lee Wai Yee in Hong Kong at
[email protected]
Last Updated: September 23, 2009 05:42 EDT