Someone in KPMG’s Houston Office Looking to Unload Leftovers from the Fall Garage Sale

In anything is better than the shit BP has on its hands news, Reuters reports that creditors of PFF Bancorp Inc are requesting permission from a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware to snoop around “information in KPMG’s possession” to find out what the firm knew about PFF’s over-leveraged, under-capitalized, risk-loving ways.

The company’s committee of unsecured creditors wrote in their request that “Information in KPMG’s possession may support potential claims against third parties and against KPMG itself, if, for example, it becomes apparent that KPMG knew or should have known at an early date of any overly-aggressive or inadequately-controlled loan practices of the (company).”

So in other words, PFF would like to – pretty please – sue someone’s ass and they’d like to confirm whether or not KPMG will be a good candidate for said ass suing. So assuming the bankruptcy court gives them the thumbs-up, PFF will send in the hounds to find out what’s what. And they’ve covered themselves nicely by using the wonderfully subjective “knew or should have known” so KPMG’s only option will be to invoke the “we were duped” excuse, which isn’t such a flattering option.

KPMG didn’t respond to Reuters’ request for comment or our email but we’re guessing they’re less than enthused about sharing what is in their audit workpapers. Not necessarily because the documentation will have a smoking gun but more so because they might discover that the partner on the engagement has a bad habit of doodling and that’s just embarrassing.

PFF Bancorp creditors seek probe of auditor KPMG [Reuters]