And then there were two?
In the wake of talk of criminally prosecuting KPMG and possibly putting it out of business, it's significant that one of the other three may be in trouble. In the suit against Deloitte in connection with the Parmalat collapse, a court has denied a motion to dismiss the parent organization. Parmalat was $17 billion in the hole when the smoke cleared.
Previous rulings have denied “partnership by estoppel” against large accounting organizations. See Bromberg & Ribstein on Partnership, 2.12(d), note 30. Cases rejecting this argument despite advertising suggesting a single worldwide firm include Young v. F.D.I.C., 103 F.3d 1180 (4th Cir. 1997); Howard v. Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler, 977 F. Supp. 654, 663 (S.D.N.Y. 1997); and First American Corp. v. Price Waterhouse LLP, 988 F. Supp. 353 (S.D.N.Y. 1997).
Update: Parmalat administrator's suit against Deloitte US dismissed.
The decision is at http://www.cmht.com/pdfs/Parmalat062805.pdf The claim is one of actual agency rather than of agency by estoppel.
Posted by: Caroline Bradley | June 29, 2005 at 03:17 PM
Why not just 2 Maybe even zero. Then they will have to go back and re-visit SOX.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz | June 29, 2005 at 10:43 PM