https://www.youtube .com/watch?v=C_0XEIFGK5o
The Wirecard scandal brought the role of big auditing firms into focus. Their work is supposed to create trust in companies. But are appearances deceptive? EY, PwC, KPMG and Deloitte: these “Big Four” auditing firms are hardly household names. Yet they play a key role in the global economy. They have also all been at the center of a number of major financial scandals. For ten years, auditors at EY (Ernst & Young) certified Wirecard’s annual financial statements. They failed to uncover that a network of fraudsters were using accounting tricks to write billions into Wirecard’s books over several years. Hundreds of Wirecard employees lost their jobs, and thousands of investors lost a total of €4.5 billion. Why didn’t the auditors recognize the fraud? Were they negligent, overextended? The Big Four dominate the global audit industry, and their vast knowledge of company- and tax-law making them indispensable. Because growth opportunities in auditing have largely been exhausted, the Big Four offer a raft of consulting services, not only to the companies they audit but also to governments. Have the Big Four become too powerful — even out of control? This documentary explores the role auditors played in the Wirecard scandal, investigates potential conflict of interest within the Big Four, and sheds light on the companies’ role within a complex web of political and economic dependencies. #documentary #dwdocumentary ______ DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch top documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary. Subscribe to: ⮞ DW Documentary (English): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocumentary ⮞ DW Documental (Spanish): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocumental ⮞ DW Documentary وثائقية دي دبليو (Arabic): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocarabia ⮞ DW Doku (German): https://www.youtube.com/dwdoku ⮞ DW Documentary हिन्दी (Hindi): https://www.youtube.com/dwdochindi For more visit: http://www.dw.com/en/tv/docfilm/s-3610 Follow DW Documentary on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwdocumentary/ Follow DW Documental on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwdocumental We kindly ask viewers to read and stick to the DW netiquette policy on our channel: https://p.dw.com/p/MF1G
So corrupt.
LOL @ the music from Pain & Gain
27:22, That’s actually really interesting. The auditor/consulting firms are covering their own hides by giving the best legal advice for legal tax evasion. It sounds like they have a fiduciary responsibility the way he’s saying they could be on the hook for their advice.
I worked a project with a client that was using PWC as an IT consultanting firm. I was hired specifically for my expertise with a COTS product. I was ignored by the management team that had hitched itself to PWC as well as the PWC development team. That is until a few months before the product was supposed to launch. I was handed paperwork explaining how the developement team was going to handle connecting to the COTS product. It was obvious that the PWC team had not even looked at any of the COTS documentation a day in their life. Well, we didn’t launch. That product was shelved, because the previous phases product which had launched a month after I came on for the phase 2 product was failing so spectacularly that state regulators had become involved. Phase 2 was eventually scrapped entirely. I moved on to the next disaster involving mixing auditors and their clients.
Every person I have met who has worked for one of these firms says the same thing “We have to do what our clients demand of us, otherwise they will just go to our competitors”.
Geez we ain’t safe from government robbing us of more taxes and companies that we invest in robbing and lying to us. Ain’t no chance of us getting rich when we are being double stabbed
Dumbest system ever. If the IRS wants me audited, I don’t get to choose the auditor and then tell him that I’ll keep him hired if he’s nice to me.
Follow the money to the online gambling agency in Gibraltar.
I have been part of two audit firms and believe me, the client pressure is what pushes the audit teams to wrap up the audit in a given deadline and this compromises the quality. A global convention of a minimum time period for audit must be established or else audit quality will continue falter.
These firms cannot be trusted with auditing crypto companies.
I work for Russia I renounce Korea a dog would never do.
EY being paid by wildcard.
If EY would have gave a bad opionion they loose business. EY will obtain more business because they know EY will not give a bad opinion.
I am not familiar with European or German regulations, but I do know in the United States the Sarbanes Oxley Act does not permit a firm to provide consulting services to a client which it audits. This is an essential part of maintaining independence. I am very surprised to hear companies are allowed to do both in the EU. Partners also must switch clients regularly so they do not become too close to them, for that could damage their independence. I think forcing a client to switch companies every 10 years is a bit much, but changing partners in charge of the audit every so often seems sufficient in the United States. (Just the perspective of a big 4 auditor from the States)
It sounds like FISG just copied The U.S’s SOX Act, lol.
Thanks DW for another independent study. Please keep on producing these reports to be an example of professional journalism 👏