CL Financial – CLICO scandal: Silence from Price Waterhouse Coopers as forensic investigator Robert Lindquist submits report

“No one is questioning the role of Pricewaterhouse Coopers in this Clico fiasco. PwC consistently signed clean Audit reports for Clico and CIB despite knowing about the inaccurate and fraudulent accounting. CIB’s accounts for the 2007 year end were signed off on December 3rd 2009, less that 45 days before the company crashed. There was no going concern qualification, or subsequent events note that should have been in the audit report. Surely PwC knew of the company’s predicament when they signed the accounts!”

“CIB’s accounts for the year ended December 31st 2007 were signed off on December 12th 2008 to be exact. PwC knew about CIBs predicament and still signed a clean audit report. We are a backward community if that firm is allowed to continue unscathed.”

… Above comments left by BFP reader “Trini Whistleblower“ on May 18, 2009 & June 7, 2009

What did PWC know about CL Financial & CLICO – and when did they know it?

I don’t know much about business, auditing or bookkeeping other than what I’ve read here and there – but I have the impression that a small business person could successfully hide many offside and questionable transactions from their employees, accountant, the tax people and their husband or wife.

At least, a business owner might be able to hide them for a while because, unlike a public company, small private businesses don’t usually get audited. The relatively small number of transactions is easier to juggle too. Also, a small business person can make some side deals for cash once in a while, maybe have some inventory “stolen” or “damaged beyond repair” while they sell it out the backdoor for cash.

Yes, a small business owner could probably pocket ten or twenty thousand dollars a year without raising too many red flags – and it could probably be done successfully for years if the owner doesn’t get too greedy.

Of course, if you’re a multi-national public company like CL Financial & CLICO that has to be audited every year it becomes much more difficult to hide missing cash, inventory and company value to the tune of, oh – for instance – say, 76.1 BILLION DOLLARS.

Yet that is exactly what happened…

One moment CL Financial was worth over 100 Billion dollars and a few days later it was worth only 23.9 Billion.

Now, like I say folks, I’m no accountant or auditor like the very prestigious firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers, but I can subtract 23.9 from 100 and determine that we seem to be missing 76.1 Billion dollars.

Just a minute – I’m going to check if any of those missing billions might be lying around in my desk drawer… Nope, not here. Maybe in the boot of Shona’s car? No, not under the bed either. I wonder where the 76.1 Billion dollars could be…?

I’d wager that right now there are a few Caribbean bankers, politicians and business people who don’t want shareholders and forensic auditors looking too closely in their desk drawers or in the boot of wifey’s car… or too closely at various financial transactions that happened over the last ten years.

It would be a good guess to assume that some folks at Price Waterhouse Coopers are making plans for early retirement.

Price Waterhouse Coopers and some of their associates have some serious explaining to do about where the MISSING 76.1 BILLION dollars might be and why they failed so miserably in their duties.

Hang ’em High!

The elites, including Prime Minister David Thompson, are doing their best to protect Sylvia and Lawrence Duprey, Leroy Parris and other friends – but in the end a few sacrificial lambs will have to be offered to the public.

How will the Caribbean banks, politicians and business people retain public confidence if they don’t publicly hang a few bodies at the crossroads?

The question I have is: How many of the hanging bodies will be Price Waterhouse Coopers employees and associates?

Further Reading

Keltruth Blog: Forensic investigator Robert Lindquist Submits Report on CL Financial & CLICO. Government Silent.

Keltruth Blog: What is the Nature of the Relationship between Leroy Parris of CLICO and Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson?

About BFP’s use of the PWC logo: This logo only consists of typefaces, individual words, slogans, or simple geometric shapes. These are not eligible for copyright alone because they are not original enough, and thus the logo is considered to be in the public domain – so stick it where the sun doan shine if you be PWC comin’ after poor little BFP!