KPMG Suspected of Involvement in Bankruptcy of Azerbaijani Bank

The Committee of Creditors of Bank Standard expects the reaction of the General Directorate for Combating Corruption under the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan. "We asked the Prosecutor General"s Office to investigate the implementation of banking supervision by the Central Bank, and later the Financial Market Supervision Authority (FIMSA) in this financial institution," said the Chairman of the Creditors Committee, well-known bank expert Akram Hasanov.

"Prior to this, our committee applied to the Deposit Insurance Fund, FIMSA and the Central Bank to ensure that we were submitted the audit certificates that were conducted at Bank Standard over the past ten years. However, in this request, the committee was officially denied under the pretext of bank secrecy. I have already said repeatedly that such an argument is inappropriate, since banking secrecy cannot be due to the liquidation of the bank," Hasanov explained.

According to him, after that the Creditors Committee had to apply to the General Department for Combating Corruption under the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan: "Having received an official refusal of these departments, the creditors applied to the Prosecutor General"s Office for joint investigation (in cooperation with the Creditors" Committee - Ed.) of circumstances involving the banking supervision of the Central Bank and FIMSA. We know that for the past two years there has not been an external audit in Bank Standard. According to reports, the audit company KPMG did this, but the results of the audit were not approved by the bank"s management, and the report remained incomplete. So, KPMG conducted an audit in 2012 and 2013; there is a conclusion that the audit was completed. However, as far as we know, the management of the bank was not satisfied with the results of audits of the external auditor in 2014 and 2015," the source said, noting that this circumstance reduces the responsibility of KPMG and raises questions to the Central Bank.

"It turns out that the external auditor identified problems, the bank refused its services, and the Central Bank did not even notice these problems. If this information is confirmed, the circle of questions to the Central Bank will grow. It turns out that the CBA was not interested in the results of the audit, knew about the difficult situation of the bank, but closed its eyes to it. For this reason, we ask the General Directorate for Combating Corruption to understand why CBA did not require the results of the audit and did not identify the problems themselves. This is a serious issue, since the debts of Bank Standard exceeded its assets by six times! It is obvious that the problems arose with the bank at least five to six years ago. The Prosecutor General"s Office should receive verification reports and determine whether there was an accident, malice or corruption," Hasanov said.

Since last March the control function was transferred to FIMSA, the committee insists on inspections of this body by the Prosecutor General"s Office, as well as clarification of the involvement of the temporary administrator in the bankruptcy of the bank: "If it becomes clear that these bodies and persons are involved in bankruptcy and their fault will be revealed, creditors will demand their money," explained the chairman of the committee. - As for KPMG, it conducted audits in 2012 and 2013, assessing the bank"s condition as stable. On the audits of 2014 and 2015 we do not know anything. In addition, we received this information in a roundabout way, so to speak, and we want the auditor to officially confirm it.

It should also be noted that after the announcement of bankruptcy, KPMG evaluated the residual property of the bank on the order of the Deposit Insurance Fund. We believe that this is a conflict of interest, since the auditor, who himself is on the bank"s list of bankruptcy suspects, should not have evaluated the property, because there are doubts about its objectivity," Hasanov said.

KPMG is one of the world"s largest networks providing professional services, and one of the auditing companies of the Big Four, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC. The international headquarters is located in Amstelveen. -0-