In a startling confession by Equitable Life’s chief executive, close on the heels of Ernst & Young’s accusation against Equitable of being hypocritical last week, Charles Thomson declared that he had failed to distinguish any inadequacies in the company’s 1999 accounts that had been audited by accountancy firm, E&Y.
Admitting that he had actually approved of the provisions reserved in the 1999 accounts under E & Y auditors, Thomson said, “At the time I was satisfied [with the 1999 accounts] and believed them to be correct.”
Equitable Life had filed a suit of negligence against accountancy firm, E&Y claiming that the insurer’s policy holders had suffered huge losses since E&Y auditors had not warned Equitable to put aside more than the slated £200m provision as income protection cover in its 1997-1999 accounts. However, as E&Y produced evidence of Thomson signing on the company’s 2001 accounts that mentioned the £200m provision in the 1999 accounts, Equitable was probably left with no other choice than to relent.
Thomson, on being coaxed by E&Y’s Jonathan Gaisman, QC, added that E&Y had not been sacked due to any grievance but only for a new beginning. In his words, "We did not ask them to go because we knew about something at that stage."
Thomson was also grilled regarding the reference letter which was supposedly sent by his former Boss at Scottish Widows at the time of his appointment with Equitable. The letter that spoke pompously about Thomson’s conduct and accomplishments, calling his tenure as the deputy chief executive at Scottish an “exceptional success”, was admitted to have been forged by Thomson and to have been written by him and not his former Boss, Mike Ross.
Posted
on : Fri, 29 Apr 2005 22:00 GMT | Insurance News
By : Salim Patel
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