Ernst & Young Hit with Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit by Miami-Based Law
Firm for Actions of Predecessor Company
Lawsuit Comes on the heels of a British Investigation into Ernst & Young’s Handling of Lehman
Brothers Accounts Prior to the Investment Banking Firm's Collapse in 2008.
(PRWEB) June 24, 2010 -- A lawsuit filed against Ernst & Young, one of the world's "Big Four" accounting
firms, by Cueto Law group, a Miami-based international law firm, alleges that a predecessor firm issued a
fraudulent audit report resulting in catastrophic financial losses to the Plaintiffs.
The Plaintiffs, Fischer Engineering and Maintenance Company, along with its principals, Cesar Catibayan and
Donald Fischer, filed the action after a 14-year long legal battle against a former company executive for illegally
converting company assets. Plaintiffs commissioned the audit to prove that the former executive used company
funds to buy up all of the company's stock.
Sycip, Gorres Velayo & Co., a Philippines company and former branch of Arthur Andersen SGV later acquired
by Ernst & Young, was hired by the parties to conduct an independent audit of the transaction.
According to the lawsuit, the accounting firm submitted a false audit report and refuses to amend it, "despite their
knowledge and possession of documentary evidences that would materially affect and contradict their previous
audit findings”
Fischer claims its former COO Isaias Bongar "unlawfully seized all the company assets, worth millions of
dollars, including all books, records, etc.," and then "transferred all the company assets and employees to his own
office ... and declared himself as the 100 percent owner."
Bongar then shut down the company's Manila office and "moved the company to his gated compound," claiming
"that he was the legitimate 100 percent owner" because "he fully paid for all the shares of [Fischer stocks,"
according to the complaint. But Fischer says Bongar used "monies belonging to the company and its joint
venture ... and not a cent