It's not really that odd that someone would sue an auditor for $100 million. It's also not unusual that a company (usually through some PR flak) would publicly rebuke the auditor in a news report or press release. What is unique is a company issuing a press release announcing their lawsuit against their audit firm that also dedicates nearly a third of the words written to the obviously pissed off CEO's rant on the auditor, their services, their competence, their character, their indifference and holding them respsonsible for everything bad that has happened since the dawn of man.
"In over 25 years of acting as Chairman, CEO and CFO of several companies on three continents, I have never had to deal with such unprofessional auditors as those at KPMG Hong Kong. In my own personal opinion, their audit team and management engaged in our audit are not only incompetent, but also — and this is the worst part insofar as I am concerned – very arrogant and ignorant towards smaller clients like us. We have proposed amicable out of court settlements several times, but KPMG Hong Kong has ignored us and our concerns for months, just as it repeatedly did during the audit assignment. Therefore, we have had no other choice but to sue KPMG Hong Kong and its senior managers to finally enforce our legal rights. The Writ we have filed today claims that KPMG Hong Kong's conduct has caused substantial harm to our company and our shareholders, has cut us off from several funding options and has triggered the collapse of our stock price since the termination of the audit engagement. We will now seek to enforce our rights and interests against KPMG Hong Kong to their fullest extent by claiming substantial damages, costs and interest so as to repair the damage done to us by our former auditors," said Eberhard Schoneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, Inc.
[via Artificial Life]
