the w africa's facebook page and other social media platforms, crime fighters, tune in. now. i am going to go, i was sexual assault survivor, a full of being pleasure. delighted for those of us. can we shoot speaker? them to step up and say the truth has women in asia are back to see if it's too simple. don't be afraid to make mistakes. nothing can soften. that is that is your ride. i am actually to feel and found her so cra, taking job and do this mean? her women in asia these into this week.

why? oh, they've been called the watchdogs of capitalism. the conscience of the free market and the pin stripe mafia. the big full audit is ernst and young k, p m g p, w c. and to know what the big 4 are incredibly influential in america because they are indispensable experts with an in depth knowledge of companies and tax law. they're much too powerful to me. they influence politics and legislation with wilkerson. we can't work without the big for they have an

important role ordered in corporate financial statements. it's extremely important for us as consumers and for people who are in las vegas to trust the information we are given. but are they doing their job in 2020 the why can't scandal shook germany from bows and from the stock market favorite to fraud company. so i know never before has there been such a plummeting dax and sing lung audited? why can't financial results for years? without uncovering the fraud is county signed as feler d for mistakes from 90 years ago, which led to our profession should not have repeated. see, you don't have to be an angel in order to make a good audit. you just have to be independent. each new scandal put the big orders,

his in the spotlight. are they taking shortcuts? are they overwhelmed? or is the system at fault? ah, yes, ah thomas here it is replied. his passion is building guitars. the pension of just under 2000 years, the former high school teacher says he is enough to live comfortably. but his also managed to put a little aside. now, no wonder scared. i thought if you put money in a checking account, inflation takes it would. oh. instead, he invested most of his savings in a promising german company. id id, kind these equal floyd, i'm inch. i'm not a risk taker, omission. which is why i didn't buy just any stock. even i bought wire card. octave

coughed all it had seemed a safe bet, but then the company suddenly crashed along with the chairs and started to computers. i rented a food so big that the stock would become almost worthless. i didn't think it was possible at my service guy. why can't lost a total of 10000000000 euros in market capitalization? raising many questions. me though is how could he owe to the following? and i think that the payment processing company was fudging as well in senior year . younger finance minister blames the private auditors. he should, i climb under a small investor like me can't check where the wire card statements are true. austin managed thomas harris has joined a class action lawsuit against white cards,

auditor clift. they carry some blame. they should have been more careful. but who are thomas haggard and the other small investors up against ernst and young or e y became the song auditor of y card in 2011. together with p w. c, k, p m g. and deloitte e. y is one of the big for the full largest accounting firms. together they employ $1100000.00 in and around $150.00 countries and they ordered the financial statements of almost all major companies. silas tells home is doing her ph. d at copenhagen business school. she's been researching the big for and the role they play in the economy and society for years

. auditing is something that is required. this is something that is extremely important for well functioning market economy every medium or large company is required to have its annual financial results reviewed by an independent auditor. for a market economy, it's extremely important for us as consumers and for people who are invest us to trust the information we are given. and our only weapon really is the audit ah. in 1929, the start of the great depression, companies and banks around the world rush to hide their financial problems. and countless people lost their jobs and savings, including hundreds of thousands in germany when indies. this was the context in which legislators introduced statutory audits for stock companies in 1931. he's off

go about invo trust. we flew but hard. globalization accelerated the economy. companies grew quickly informed, international networks. auditors grew to in the 1980s, 8 accounting firms dominated the international industry. he expanded and merged, forming the big sea then it became the b 5. and just a short while later, the big for k p and g, a y, d light and p w. c in germany, the institute of public auditors or i d. w helps influence orders in rules. the

privately run organization represents the interests of more than a 1000 public auditing firms in germany, including the big 4 ah, close by no means says the job them auditor is clearly defined ah, desk auditors are required by law to carefully verify annual financial statements spoof mm. they are also supposed to maintain professional skepticism toward the companies they audit and follow a specific procedure ah, an actual spoof from east of us. an audit is designed to detect errors in financial statements of to the weather, due to fraud or not,

is irrelevant. would any good between entities for camida? when a company opens its books, it's business is late. they're in numbers, order to see where money flows in and where it then flows out. bank accounts, marketing costs, operating expenses and acquisitions. the big of the company, the more complicated this flow of money can be ordered his gen, a tenant examiner company in its entirety. they instead choose an area to focus on the one with a suspect, the highest risk they compare the company's statements with the actual financial transactions to get an understanding of each of the transactions. if the order to find snow falls in the company's annual financial statements, they give what's called an unmodified opinion, a seal of approval for the company. the

oldest is verdict, a wire card was trusted for many years. and to this day, e y maintains it audited. why can't the best of its knowledge and according to protocol, when by voicemail inter name initial for him pushed it, he's companies like that land and auditors don't notice it's over, because then we can no longer rely on the very foundation of slim namely mister number michigan philosophy fabio de monte coach shed jeremy's was caught parliamentary inquiry committee. together with parliamentarians from all political parties, demands, he began investigating the german companies collapse. not till the 2020. the committee questioned a $110.00 witnesses of 9 months. what is the key questions?

did e, why make mistakes? the why can't, scandal was not the 1st time the big auditors had to face criticism. me for 5 years. horizontal boring machine company flow takes inflated its results with fake sales. and k, p. m g didn't notice. then either leading to damages of more than 5000000000. deutsch marks the biggest white collar crime ever in germany, who's in the us energy company. enron inflated its profits for years. it's ordered to arthur andersen was one of the big 5 back thin. and once again, the order just failed to detect the fraud and wrong filed for bankruptcy in 2001. the senior anderson employees destroyed company documents without permission following the scandal, the order to surrender the license to ordered listed companies. but it never

recovered and was essentially dissolved ah, in 2008, it was investment bank, lehman brothers, filing for bankruptcy. lehman had used to counting tricks to hide it financial situation. yes. and he was kept to proving they cooked books. ah, the bell markets are in shock. the stocks are plummeting out. lehman brothers eventually collapsed and a massive debt in 2008, triggering the largest financial and economic crisis since the 2nd world war taxpayer money was used to save banks around the world. 59000000000 euros in germany alone escaped diesel fy uncertain fiddler font. these are isolated cases of corporate fraud that auditors failed to detect at sophia. and each case is

one to many than oust scenes. but can we say that because of these 10 scandals and 90 years? that's auditing truck, which checks thousands of financial statements every year. how doesn't work was performed, we should auditors really help uncover corporate scandals. and possible explanation is that there are conflicts of interest companies hire and pay their auditors themselves. a practice based on a government assumption that companies have an interest in being properly audited. then the vote trust east de from auditing this the public trust in a company and finances in i own use book trust, fund. antonyms that and me

ring is an expert on financial statements and consultant. she says the fact that companies pay their auditors is problematic, or many lies to happen to this student in the chin the sign. but if we agree on the deadline, and i don't meet it, increasing costs, and then decline might say, i see that you stay within it or next year we'll hire another old, non profile on swan del to is all too familiar with this pressure. he worked as a junior auditor, p w c in luxembourg for 2 years or the call figures was basically an auditor. see something, you know, it's against his interest to speak up, especially if they don't want to correct it. just, it's impossible to audit well

a moment. mm. and there's an additional factor complication the auditor company relationship. next to auditing. the big 4 also offer consulting. they advise clients on digitalization, fillasy and texas. the big 4 are incredibly influential in a market economy. they have a lot of services that really impact how business is done. sinus style home says this creates yet another conflict of interest. you cannot see someone as a your client and then also investigate them critically. as the regulator you have to be on one side or the other. the big falls,

cold business used to be order thing, but now at any accounts for around a 3rd of their revenue around 2 thirds comes from consultancy, then he's not to revise. if i know the auditing market has limited and fees are essentially stagnant, and consultancy is the opposite. that then it makes sense to offer the latter, using it not to 1st end date, does unlike them, and so beaten virtuously had a fluke. z kept valley. tate endeavor trots boom square traffic when he moved to not doing well financially. insurance quality at the auditing firm. i'm in the or i'd like to add thoughts doing well financially. also secures financial independence. not pinkies. i'm the only one who isn't financially independent and is probably most likely to look the other way. and for a client, they're auditing when they shouldn't have been a neat tune. zoe, to profit

major consulting, and she was, auditors can remain independent, at least according to class. peter norman, but is this theory true or this is independent from their clients? it's another form of pdf you see employee shared his experience in the us. now robot out worked as an auditor at p w. c for 18 years. the problem is that many companies that i experience didn't have the comp or bouncing house to document the complexity of the transactions that they were doing. but instead of hiring 3rd party consultants to do that for them, the auditors was doing this for them. because again, once you do that, management likes, you will be auditory not supposed to do that because the auditors should audit if

the other part ends up doing it. then who are the, the auditors bought repeatedly reported his findings to his superiors. since i started to report of those things internally and my performance ratings started to get annually decline, and i was not allowed to work on jobs progressively in this is how much of water says it recalled shows that his superior said bottle was too critical of his clients management and to hire comp, auditor that are more friendly or less inclined to give negative control opinions which men to that if we alone, what are the one that we're giving adverse control opinion when the other 3 did not, we will not have been high ever be in the market. morrow bottle was fired in 2017.

his suit for reinstatement was dismissed by california court in august 2021. ah. michelle destroys the certified public accountant and chairman of the association for medium sized company auditing. he says the big for forcing small auditing firms out of the market. just one of the reasons why he's been campaigning for years, restrict a separation between odyssey and consulting her values and foster you. not pinkish china, you just can't trace what a fact consulting has on the independence of the auditors. mission for falling invasion, influenced us of improve, haven't plus mila. with following the financial crisis, the topic was put on the e,

which end in 2010 e commission. and michelle, danielle also felt the independence of auditors was at risk a if you so is it healthy for the same firms to be auditing and consulting? it you can say docile context or is complete independence even possible in that context. i'm all bushy dominance calls are often when we hoped what he said would become reality. veterans criteria benet wanted to strictly separate auditing and consultancy. he also said company should be required to change auditors every 10 years. as for the and of course, a lobby, what followed was a lobbying campaign which michelle bonnie, a correctly described as the biggest campaign ever in brussel tub. san diego

was the coordinator of the e committee on economic and monetary affairs until 2021. he saw lobbyists working for large auditors exit political influence in brussels. the reading a to this within a shadow striegel, they're talking to the decision makers and they're meeting them early on him and when it's crucial, as of at the commission or at the ministry of the members state. often in the, in hotly anything remained of michelle danny's ideas. member states themselves got to decide which e orbiting reforms, they introduced me as a special needs kids. everything was watered down. justin is up to special origin. mm. gemini, introduced several exceptions. auditors could still act as consultants to companies . they audit. they could order the company for longer than 10 years. how this

reform developed reveals another potential conflict of interest. new this we know the big for regularly getting lucrative consultants to contracts with german ministries in his hand. al clothing, e, y, and even after wire card or not, these consultancy contracts still exist will begin by a ton to problem was these problems show that the best people will no longer work in the ministry as ishmael. the best law to harbor this problem also applies to the order to watchdog known as a pos in germany. a period checks with the order is maintain their independence. as a half, it's employees used to work at one of the big for so

if you have a system where there are 4 organisation that have penetrated the government institution that are supposed to oversee them, they are essentially untouchable. governments often have to rely on external experts in the big for a very happy to offer their expertise skips it in peak for when it comes to the big for there's a kind of conspiracy theory about house them. shady power influences everything, but it's, but that's just part of a desperate search. had to find a physical power not behind. global capitalism include knocked her in global is yet, and capitalism was open. but they are obviously example when she plays misty goc to i was like an army, howard gives them political slate. ah,

for all torn del, to getting a job, the big fall was a great opportunity. he started working for p. w. c. in luxembourg, in 2008, i did, i switched new. i'm interested in numbers and i'm analytical. and so this was a good fit sample nebula. he believed auditors could positively impact society. some it's you very important for auditors to be independent sort of careless societies to rely on financial data being corrected with the national sir. p w. c is demanding employer with long working hours and high pressure. over time, antoine del to a, began to understand how luxembourg worked as a financial center in a demo system. so digital fits mormon loyalty passcode, which did the some audits really shocked me. because i was investigating empty shell companies called no implies no revenue,

her no real economic activity and luxembourg, collectively taken and were supposed to create transparency, lifted up vomiting. but what's the point with empty shell? so they could it either. and if i could have solved that was a don't want l to became disillusioned about the societal benefits of working as an auditor, a p, w. c. he lost his motivation. after 2 years, he resigned that before leaving, he came across confidential tax returns. i showed that luxemburg glued international companies with deals tailor made by p w. c. that slashed corporate taxes to less than one percent. that's english gets down bys and every tax trick, just short of illegal is being used to move profit made in one country that high into another country to be taxed at a lower rate in an unknown land. first oil bradon vol. done. not foolish destroyer

blast only to the ghost. p w. c. even prepared tax. rollins with the letterhead of luxembourg tax authorities . government officials just had to sign the price waterhouse coopers. i o t w. c was practically a division of luxembourg financial administration. this. it's unreal, wendy, on tom del to a shared the documents with a french journalist. and he was then charged by luck from the authorities in 2014 for leaking documents. but in 2018, he was recognized as a whistleblower. he w. c. isn't the only firms selling such tech strategies they bring in

a lot of money for k p m g, e, y, deloitte, and other tax consultants all over the world? yeah, of course. that is some extra by 3rd. so the discussion and the big for particularly when you think about how important they are for of functioning maggie, the economy, it's little bit worried that they are also in the ones who undermine the society in some ways, by showing it businesses how they can practice it. takes aggressive us according to the european commission, the e you lose is up to $70000000000.00 euros a year to, to corporate tax tricks. around half of the ease annual budget. their goal is to shop biggest damage is that people feel like some people are above the law and those who get expert biases have an international network and don't pay

their taxes. this low as the entire systems legitimacy for the schism to store this team. the common z in an a z a schmiel z 2 or to one vanderbilt, a smaller that's a difficult area to one is it's morally objectionable to use tax laws put in place . but the legislators who's the sovereign ed skibo does this yet is we'll then zips gazette, stud tax competition, also causes tax avoidance, because you mean where does an incentive for some as a strategy for someone else and consultants are supposed to tell their clients about the various opportunities ministers, australia mulatto, would have a trust with anita if it's a tax consultant or auditor. hm. my, i don't do that is i got my clients come later say i caused them financial damage vide because i didn't tell them all the options is that when you all the legal options legality to reduce their taxes. do you want managed? wireless skipped but the big for aren't just advising their clients.

what it's very problematic is that many are also involved in legislation and other things in ministries that's cable being the toilets and minnes tail him. every country has its own tech floors and the resulting complexity leads to a need for expertise exactly what the big for, and their international networks offer via zene by the but actual didn't want to niemen. var consulting allows us to see where the problems and the text systems are. one of these amino andrew tell politicians, the government, the finance ministry to you on the parliament's parliament of maxim economy centers is okay to speak with experts also even business experts about. but when they're practically co writing laws, without the public or even parliamentarians knowing that's

a problem with other so somebody's problem spring 2021. e y audit has come into scrutiny by the wire cod parliamentary committee with a team of oranges was appointed a special investigator, his the committee asked them to review e wise black card ordered. they findings was summarized in the when back report pulled out confidential. it was late to some journalists ah, felix halterman's works the handle, split a gym and financial paper, and had been following the wire card case for a long time. his disc also got a copy of the one back report to have amber placed at 60 gaster. the van back report is the 1st public audits of one of the big fours workbook affairs. it's

findings are crucial forgiveness. they all offish been the investigators looked at records from 2016 until 2021 and tried to ascertain with an e. why should have uncovered the fraud early up. mm. i cut of an insight in 2016 to wire card, bought a dubious indian payments firm for a great deal of money and f suspicion rows that wire card managers. i made money off the deal at home in response in my started project ring a forensic orders according to the went back report. but there were problems with z, a cleaning from by wire card management. i didn't sufficiently explain why they had overpaid for the take over the one back report into detail lesson from

march 29th 2017. written by the e gwyle auditor and address to the chairperson of why cod supervisory board to todd sandy's appointed mr. abaski called jets and if these points are not conclusively clarified accident, there may be a modified opinion for the financial statements. we would also like to inform you that we will decide whether we can continue to work together based on your reaction to this letter. e, y is threatening to not give an unmodified opinion and to withdraw from the auditing mandate targets. this would have been a disaster for why a cart. a modified opinion alone is enough for investors and banks to lose trust. but it would have also been a bit liability for the auditors in up of are not even the week after this letter. and we don't know what happened during that time, e y delivered at the opinion on modified did

e y receive the information they needed? the special investigators said the following in their report. the information includes verbal and written explanations by the management board. a proper clarification of the open points cannot be found in the documents finished. you don't even want to see if i'm just having the board confirm things, then there's no point again, then i may as well skip it. i need to maintain a skeptical attitude and assume something is incorrect, mistimed. blue. this is the only time e y spotted top lives at wire card. in the supervisory boards notes which handles black obtained the auditors said the following in 2019 to

tarts. fife, under, into quote, doubts about the management's integrity life at e. y doubt. the board's integrity is pretty much the strongest statements and auditor to make and proof of how to present can put in 2019 e y again gave wire card and unmodified opinion, but they did refer to fraud investigations against white cod employees and singapore, in their final report e y said the following in a written statement. very few annual financial statements of tax companies have contained such statements. this alone shows that this was an unusual measure that the auditors comments to see little attention, and why con, skilfully concealed its true value in the final report. as a family plan. if you look at the balance sheet, you see 2700000000 euros in cash and cash equivalence. nothing about how this also

includes money in escrow, get down to the common kind of light and from a to one on the financial statements . it looked as if why a card was swimming in money and scent young hut in iden through all the years it was auditing has armed ernst and young a fail to obtain an independent confirmation that these funds existed. the desk instead, you why relied on trustees latham in a written statement, e y said the complex criminal web was designed to deceive numerous stakeholders, including investors, bank regulators, supervisory boards, auditors, despite their diligent and extensive efforts. mm. e y had become suspicious, but it seems that none the less continued to trust while cots management board in team moments. vincent if i a y,

relied on board statement so while simultaneously doubting its integrity by ford. even as an external observer hannibal buffer that makes you wonder how e y could have issued audit certificates all those years. wanted to this day, it's unclear why e y auditors did not heed. the many warning signals the damage to their reputation is considerable. clients such as commerce bank to which a telecom in k w a government bank ended, they aud sing agreements with e. y. in 2020 munich state, prosecutors opened investigation into the partners at e was ordered at wire. cott june 2021. the parliamentary inquiry committee presented its final report on why i caught these up between this broad should have been stopped.

early on. ladies and gentlemen, again, playing with young le cooley, the auditors, should have verified whether the 1900000000 euros one 3rd of the balance sheet was actually in a philippines escrow account of bill. on some of my m, i'm going to in the philippine leaked, you open e wise, high earning auditors failed. because according to the committee was not the auditor to failed. to find the case has exposed a radical failing by authority, especially by boffin might have often. boffin is germany's financial supervisory authority, responsible for monitoring small banks. insurance companies and security is trading ah. when in 2019 fresh for what allegations against y cod caused a steep drop in its share price, barf in band investors from betting against the company without verifying whether

they were problems with why a current balance sheet. financial regulated claim to tap was outside its responsibilities. ah, if i'm not responsible for something, it's not my fault and lost all of shelter. the finance minister at the time and the head of baffin. he held that position from 2018 to 2021 shalt told the parliament re committee. he didn't feel baffin had protected. why can't? but he conceded that state controls to prevent and detect financial fraud were insufficient. this up is a switched he does for you. that's why it's so important for us to do everything by ensuring our powers and rules are strong to prevent a repeat num doesn't. so hitting my pursuit

the german act to strengthen financial market integrity or fisk was passed in june 2021. the law was supposed to help strength and confidence in the gym and financial market and place more comprehensive rules on auditors. with fisk, germany implemented the e u auditing reform for post by michelle bonnie in 2011. the obligation to separate the auditing and consulting for major companies was taken seriously, which is a now no longer allowed to audit a publicly traded company for more than 10 years. and orders also have more liability related to audits under civil law. listed stock companies must have affected internal controls and baffin has more power and is directly responsible for monitoring balance sheets.

descript i need is some parts of this law a useful, but when it comes to auditing, it doesn't go far enough. i would have liked a stronger separation of auditing and consulting kind of performed bottle vention is skipped in cisco. i need to go to and the fizz got a some good points of stuff, but it won't improve the quality of audits staggered in the end. the fisk may lead to an even more concentrated, ordered market. oh, rules means more bureaucracy, which often goes beyond the capacities of smaller firms. sandy gold says this disc doesn't address the actual trunk. lon schultz at yet, and it shows introduced strict of public supervision above in the thousands of on. but if the thousands of auditors have conflicts of interest and time intestines

conflict like then just adding supervision on top is attacking from the wrong and diagonally, thus, viet from project in south e club visitations with early sign. let's be honest. non law can always prevent a wire card from happening. an info we way. i can't. definitive finan cook was an opportunist. she missed thomas hag, it is disappointed. the law hasn't restored his trust vantage. shaun's who is does money in my ear, and since they say pensions are safe and that everyone should fend for themselves, done, the government and politicians have to make sure that the order to keep an eye on things organ. does uber charge prefer? oh will please. i'm all hatch fraud and before it happens in full head, he didn't talk of all she's kind what would need to

happen to that to be guaranteed by would hitting i believe that in every country the, all the thing job should be done by the governments not by private companies, private corporations as always, the for profit as it goals. and the conflicts that exist as far as independent, it will never be solved. fabio did mossey would like to see radical changes to the market system. the paulson, border team and consultancy need to be strictly separated isn't actually quite so law. we need to break up the big plays and we need to require the inclusion of mid sized auditors from middle initial porcelain name when it comes to incorrect balance sheets plus pete. and now mom says the company's primarily responsible to elsie. the supervisory board has to ensure

a compliance. if the board isn't doing its job, authorities must intervene and buffet needs more. right. and how much public involvement you would want in any solution and much market based involvement, you would want in any solution. that is a political question. why a card shows once again that audits cannot offer sufficient protection against financial fraud. markets need reliable monitoring, free of conflicts of interest. ah, the joy ride through fascinating worlds. into uncharted deb this our guides know their way around with

a strictly scientific trip to some pretty wacky places. a curiosity is required to borrow today. 30 minutes on d. w. a gigantic sheet of paper landed on lake constance for madame buffalo. the brigands festivals, famous, forced traffic in state, but imagine having to flee. oh, how does that work? lets off the also what are the, what your role you're, you're gonna i d, w ah, hello guys. this is the 77 percent. the platform for africa. you to defeat issues and share ideas. you know, all these channels. we are not afraid to talk to and then the kids top young people

clearly have the solution. good future results to the 77 and d w ah, with this is dw news lie from berlin, ukraine's president lansky says his country is ready to help ease the world. food crisis ships loaded with previously blockaded grain are ready to set sail from black, see ports as elsewhere.