Shares of Indonesian coal mine owner Resources Prima Group crashed 44.8% in one day; The telephone number it provided in its recent SGX filings turned out to belong to a corporate secretary firm that did not know how to reach Resources Prima

http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/Sky_One_Holdings_-_Circular_dated_30_Sep_14_(without_Appendix_F).ashx?App=Prospectus&FileID=23388

THE PROPOSED CHANGE OF AUDITORS
The current auditors of the Company are Mazars LLP. The Directors are proposing the appointment of Baker Tilly TFW as auditors of the Company in respect of the forthcoming financial period following the Acquisition Completion. Following the Acquisition Completion, the principal business of the Sky One Group (with the exception of the business in PT Energy) will be replaced by the business of the Target Group. As such, the New Board is of the opinion that Baker Tilly TFW will be more familiar with and better positioned to act as the auditors of the Company following the Acquisition Completion and the Disposal Completion.

Mazars LLP Partner in charge – Lai Keng Wei

Baker Tilly TFW LLP Partner in charge – Khor Boon Hong

Indonesian mine owner’s shares plunge 44.8%

16 January 2015

Straits Times

SHARES of Indonesian mine owner Resources Prima Group crashed as much as 47.5 per cent yesterday, prompting the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to ask the firm to explain any possible reasons for the plunge. The bourse queried the company at around 3pm, pointing to “unusual price movements in your shares recently and unusual volume movements in your shares today”. From its closing price of 18.3 cents on Wednesday, the stock fell to as low as 9.6 cents – 47.5 per cent down – before recovering slightly. It ended at 10.1 cents, down 8.2 cents or 44.8 per cent. It was the day’s most active counter on turnover of 105.7 million units, a sharp jump from the 18.2 million shares that changed hands on Wednesday.

Resources Prima, which listed on the Catalist in November last year via a reverse takeover of Sky One Holdings which valued the miner at 20 cents apiece, could not be contacted. The telephone number it provided in its recent SGX filings turned out to belong to a corporate secretary firm that did not know how to reach Resources Prima. Its sponsor, Mr Alex Tan, who is chief executive officer of Canaccord Genuity Singapore, also could not be reached. Resources Prima’s business is coal exploration and coal mining in East Kalimantan. It is led by chief executive Agus Sugiono, who joined the board last November.

ASIC to crack down on miners’ dodgy overseas assets to prevent the next Sino-Forest; failure of auditors to meet generally accepted auditing standards with respect to collecting evidence regarding overseas operations

http://www.afr.com/p/national/asic_to_crack_down_on_miners_dodgy_hJB4HlCfGCv3KBrNfLWsfL

ASIC to crack down on miners’ dodgy overseas assets

PUBLISHED: 13 JAN 2015 00:04:00 | UPDATED: 13 JAN 2015 07:08:04

Over a third of companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, predominately mining and resource companies, have significant operations or assets located across Asia, South America and Africa. Photo: Reuters

The Australian Financial ReviewASX

BY PATRICK DURKIN

The corporate regulator plans a ­crackdown on mining companies ­promoting risky offshore assets, insider traders, financial planners and ­investors being duped by misleading advertising.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is concerned Australians could be sucked into ­investing in companies listed on the ASX but mainly operating overseas that do not meet Australian ­corporate-law ­standards.

ASIC plans to review a significant proportion of important corporate ­documents, including prospectuses which raise money from Australian investors, despite the companies’ ­operations being based predominately in emerging markets, including China.

Over a third of companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, predominately mining and resource companies, have significant operations or assets located across Asia, South America and Africa, leaving Australian investors exposed to foreign corporate corruption and poor legal protections.

The high-profile collapse of ­Chinese-based timber harvester Sino-Forest Corporation, which traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and now faces allegations of fraudulently inflating its assets and earnings, heightened ASIC’s concerns local investors could be burnt by poor practices overseas. Continue reading

[Flashback] Accountants face Kanebo fraud charge

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2005/09/12/national/accountants-face-kanebo-fraud-charge/#.VLn7htH9lsA

Posted by AMY Chan Wen Yi, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

Prosecutors are set to charge several certified public accountants at a Japan unit of the PricewaterhouseCoopers group with collaborating with executives at Kanebo Ltd. in an accounting fraud that has humbled the once premier cosmetics and textile company, according to investigative sources. Continue reading

[Flashback] The dozy watchdogs

Posted by NG Sin Ying, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21635978-some-13-years-after-enron-auditors-still-cant-stop-managers-cooking-books-time-some

Some 13 years after Enron, auditors still can’t stop managers cooking the books. Time for some serious reforms

NO ENDORSEMENT carries more weight than an investment by Warren Buffett. He became the world’s second-richest man by buying safe, reliable businesses and holding them for ever. So when his company increased its stake in Tesco to 5% in 2012, it sent a strong message that the giant British grocer would rebound from its disastrous attempt to compete in America. Continue reading

One of the highest accounting fraud in India since Satyam with Delhi-based Lilliput Kidswear under liquidation; Bain brought action against EY for “fraud, aiding and abetting fraud, negligent misrepresentation”

http://www.vccircle.com/news/consumer/2015/01/13/lilliput-kidswear-under-liquidation-promoter-says-has-stay-order

Lilliput Kidswear under liquidation; promoter says has a stay order

Shruti Ambavat, 14 January 2015, VC Circle

The firm unsuccessfully tried to rope in new investors and revive plans for IPO. Kids’ apparel retailer Lilliput Kidswear Ltd, the Delhi-based firm which had locked horns with its PE investors Bain Capital and TPG four years ago leading to an eventual exit of the investors from the firm, is now under liquidation, it is learnt. This could bring the debt-laden firm to the end of the road after it unsuccessfully tried to resurrect by roping in new investors. The company was facing several cases from lenders and other debtors with winding up petitions over pending payments.

As per records of the Registrar of Companies (RoC) the firm is under liquidation. However, Sanjeev Narula, promoter and chief of Lilliput Kidswear, said the firm is still contesting the winding up petitions and said he has a stay order on liquidation from the court. A consortium of bankers led by Allahabad Bank had filed for action against the company under SARFAESI Act 2002. As reported earlier, several lenders including China Trust Bank had filed court cases to recover their dues.

Its troubles started a year after it attracted Bain and TPG to co-invest to pick 45 per cent stake together in Lilliput Kidswear in 2010. In particular Bain invested Rs 265 crore ($59 million) to buy 31 per cent of which Rs 114 crore was invested in the company and the rest to buy previous PE investor Everstone Capital’s stake in the firm.

Bain and TPG Capital had alleged they were alerted to problems with the accounts at Lilliput by an unnamed whistle-blower, who is believed to be a former senior executive at Lilliput. The whistle-blower had apparently approached EY (formerly E&Y) but the red flag was dismissed and the auditor certified the company’s accounts once again. Continue reading

How oil prices will reveal financial foul play; financial accounting fraud has gone from taking up roughly 10 to 15% at the Fort Worth regional office of SEC office’s docket in 2010 to roughly 30% currently.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2014/12/how-oil-prices-will-reveal-financial-foul-play.html?s=print

How oil prices will reveal financial foul play

Suzanne Edwards

22 December 2014

Houston Business Journal Online

As oil prices force upstream oil and gas companies to make some hard decisions, investment advisers will be tested on how well they hedged against companies that may have over-reported their production and reserve amounts, said Tom Ajamie, managing partner at Houston-based Ajamie LLP. “Now as oil prices have fallen, you’re going to see who had too much debt,” Ajamie said. “You’re going to see maybe who was inflating reserves and inflating prospects.” Continue reading

Accounting fraud is ripe for fresh scrutiny

http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2014/12/30/accounting-fraud-is-ripe-for-fresh-scrutiny/

Accounting fraud is ripe for fresh scrutiny

30 December 2014

Reuters News

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

By Reynolds Holding

NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Dodgy numbers will replace insider trading as Wall Street watchdogs’ preferred prey in 2015. New auditing and analytics have already given the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a head start, even if the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley reforms make cases of accounting fraud harder to track down. Continue reading

S. Korea banks feared to suffer massive losses on mounting bad loans; Taihan, one of South Korea’s largest electrical materials manufacturers, was suspended from stock trading by the bourse operator on Dec. 24 for accounting fraud.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2015/01/07/12/0501000000AEN20150107002400320F.html

S. Korea banks feared to suffer massive losses on mounting bad loans

7 January 2015

Yonhap English News

SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) — South Korean banks are expected to suffer massive losses due to a series of bankruptcies and suspensions of big-name companies amid a protracted economic slump in the country, industry data showed Wednesday. Dongbu Corp., a construction arm of the 18th-largest conglomerate Dongbu Group, filed for court receivership last week, after admitting it was unable to pay off some 262 billion won (US$238 million) it had borrowed from several local banks, according to the data. Banks will likely set aside reserves against the bad loans extended to the builder, and their loan-loss reserves are expected to increase further if the financially shaky firm’s 1,713 subcontractors go bankrupt in the near future.

Taihan Electric Wire Co., one of South Korea’s largest electrical materials manufacturers, was suspended from stock trading by the bourse operator on Dec. 24 for accounting fraud. Continue reading

[Flashback] Eyebrows Go Up as Auditors Branch Out

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324705104578149222319470606

Posted by Katharine TAN Pei Shi, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

Auditing wasn’t all Deloitte LLP did for Autonomy Corp., the software firm recently accused of accounting improprieties by its parent company. To many observers, that sort of multitasking is potentially an industry problem.
Continue reading

[Flashback] Interview with Bing Lin, Keywise Capital Management

Bing Lin: Accounting Abuse Among Listed Chinese Companies Still Widespread

Posted by Terence CHUA Tong Liang, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Business, Singapore Management University

Below is the interview done by China Money Podcast with guest Bing Lin, portfolio manager at Hong Kong-based US$1.4 billion-under-management Keywise Capital Management, who speaks about why he believes there are still many major overseas listed Chinese companies with fraudulent accounting practices, and how 2014 will be a great year for shorting certain overseas-listed Chinese stocks.
Q: China announced plans to launch a Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect pilot program in six months. How will this impact hedge funds investing in the Greater China region?
Continue reading