That’s outside of the United States, though. In this country, Aubin found, shareholders rarely even bother to name audit firms as defendants in class actions: Only two securities class actions filed in 2012 made claims against top audit firms. And if you want to know why, read U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin’s 72-page opinion Monday dismissing allegations that the Chinese unit of Deloitte Touche failed investors in its audits of the Chinese financial software firm Longtop Financial Technologies, which admitted in 2011 to cooking its books and was subsequently sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Scheindlin concluded that Deloitte may have been lazy, at worst, but under U.S. laws and accounting standards, the audit firm should be considered a victim of Longtop’s fraud, not an abetter of it.
via The near-impossible standard for showing auditor fraud — On the Case
