[LINK] PwC partners refused bail over Satyam audit

[Michael Skeggs mike@bystander.net]

Interesting that I believe PWC are a partnership, and that all partners are
jointly and severally liable.
So if these guys get sued for damages (by, say Satyam shareholders), then
partners in PWC here and elsewhere could have to fund the restitution. This
is what fundamentally broke Anderson's after Worldcom collapsed.
Regards,
Michael Skeggs

2009/2/4 Bernard Robertson-Dunn <brd at iimetro.com.au>

> PwC partners refused bail over Satyam audit
> Michael Herman
> February 04, 2009
> Australian IT
> http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25007049-15306,00.html
>
> TWO PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) partners arrested in relation to
> India's largest-ever fraud will remain in custody until at least Friday
> after being denied bail yesterday.
>
> A magistrate in Hyderabad, India, refused bail applications from S.
> Gopalkrishnan and Talluri Srinivas, who both deny criminal conduct.
>
> Both partners worked as auditors to Satyam, India's fourth largest
> outsourcing group, whose chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, admitted to
> orchestrating over $US1 billion in fraud over several years.
>
> The two partners, who have been suspended from PwC, were arrested over
> the weekend of January 24 and 25, two and half weeks after Satyam's
> founder and chairman made his confession.
>
> The two men applied for bail last week but due to a series of delays,
> their application was only considered yesterday.
>
> They are due to appear before the court on Thursday when prosecutors can
> ask a magistrate to extend their custody.
>
> If the magistrate refuses, the two men will be released on Friday.
> Otherwise they could be detained for another two week period. Neither
> man has been charged.
>
> PwC was not immediately able to say how long the men could be held
> without charge.
>
> PwC has audited Satyam's accounts since 2000 with Mr Gopalkrishnan and
> Mr Srinivas serving as lead partners.
>
> In a statement, PwC India said: "Both partners have strongly rebutted
> the prosecution's allegations that they engaged in criminal conduct in
> relation to their work on the Satyam Computer Systems audit.
>
> "In particular, their bail petitions both maintain that they are
> innocent and that there is not an iota of material to link them with the
> accusations levelled against them. Their lawyers repeated this assertion
> during the bail hearing."
>
> PwC said that the men remain partners of the firm and are being paid but
> have been suspended from client and management responsibilities.
>
> Thomas Mathew, PwC's head of audit in India, has also stepped down and
> Sam DiPiazza, the firm's global chief executive, visited India for
> crisis talks with staff and members of the Indian Government.
>
> The Times
>
> --
>
> Regards
> brd
>
> Bernard Robertson-Dunn
> Canberra Australia
> brd at iimetro.com.au
>
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