How Jacques Wessels turned a blind eye to mega fraud
A former KPMG partner responsible for auditing a Gupta-owned company flouted the elementary requirements of his job
Gupta auditor Jacques Wessels either missed all the signs or turned a blind eye to fraud and corruption on a grand scale. Last week’s disciplinary hearing into the former KPMG partner responsible for the audit of Gupta-owned Linkway Trading for the year to February 2014, shows he failed dismally in executing even the most basic duties of an external auditor. The hearing, instituted by the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (Irba), is the first public evidence of the investigation it announced a year ago into KPMG’s work for Gupta family companies. Irba launched the probe after the Gupta e-mail leaks revealed that KPMG had signed off on the Linkway audit despite the company having plundered state funds to pay for a lavish Gupta wedding at Sun City in 2013. Four KPMG partners, including Wessels and then-CEO Moses Kgosana, attended the wedding. The audit regulator’s schedule of charges against Wessels makes a mockery of his 24 years’ experience as a KPMG director, depicting audi...
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