KPMG embroiled in Madoff affair
UK auditing giant KPMG has become embroiled in the US Madoff affair with a number of investors launching a lawsuit against the company suggesting that the auditors should have noticed the return on Madoff investments for specific clients they looked after word was too good to be true. Without going into too much detail for legal reasons, it would appear that the blame game for the alleged $50 billion Madoff fraud is moving to new levels.
While there have been a number of attempts to take legal action against various auditors in the past this has proved something of a legal minefield with very little success. The action which has been launched today is being brought by a number of high-profile wealthy individuals who have allegedly lost millions upon millions of pounds due to the collapse of the Madoff investment business.
Even though initially the situation seemed to revolve around US investors and the US market, it now turns out that various UK and other worldwide figures were persuaded to invest in the business. It could take years to unravel what is a highly complex and highly usual situation where investment returns are alleged to have been supported by a pyramid type scheme. We await further news in due course.
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