| Ernst & Young lash back at Equitable in £2bn suit |
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Insurer Equitable Life faced strong defiance as Ernst & Young alleged that Equitable Life had only proven its duplicitous nature and had exhibited ‘hypocrisy’ in its £2bn negligence case against the accountancy firm, E & Y.
Equitable Life has filed suit against 15 directors of Ernst & Young, maintaining that the accountancy firm did not warn or even advise the insurer to reserve added money as income guarantee covers for some of its policy holders in its 1997, 1998 and 1999 accounts.
However, yesterday in defence, Jonathan Gaisman QC of E&Y conversely accused Equitable saying that the board was totally hypocritical as records confirmed that Charles Thomson, Equitable chief executive, had approved of the company's 2001 accounts which incorporated a statement supporting the 1999 provision of £200m, by duly signing on them. Quite ‘ridiculously’, it was on that very same day that Charles signed another totally contradicting declaration that claimed the accounts of 1999 did not portray a "true and fair view".
Gaisman termed Equitable’s statements as "two totally irreconcilable and inconsistent statements”. He asserted that it was mandatory for Equitable to accept the audit papers of 1999 since neither Mr Thomson of Equitable or Price Waterhouse Coopers, their new auditor, had not warned E&Y to put aside more than the stated amount of £200m. Gaisman also called the insurer’s arguments rather ‘absurd’ in view of the contradictory statements made by them.
Posted
on : Thu, 21 Apr 2005 00:00 GMT | Insurance News
By : Mike Lawson
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