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1895 points _l4jh | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.261s | source
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bogomipz ◴[] No.16729876[source]
>"And we wanted to put our money where our mouth was, so we committed to retaining KPMG, the well-respected auditing firm, to audit our code and practices annually and publish a public report confirming we're doing what we said we would."

It's worth pointing out that KPMG was Wells Fargo's independent auditor while the bank recently committed fraud on a massive scale by creating more than a million fake deposit accounts and 560,000 credit card applications for customers without their knowledge or approval.[1]

Calling KPMG a "well-respected auditing firm" when they failed to detect over a million fake bank accounts is a joke. See:

https://www.reuters.com/article/wells-fargo-kpmg/lawmakers-q...

[1] https://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/2016-10-27_Ltr...

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ismail ◴[] No.16730193[source]
This has not been the only incident of them having turned a “blind eye” or doing things that were questionable.

1. They looked the other way when 100+ million of public money was laundered out of South Africa.

2. The scheme literally stole money destined to uplift poor rural communities

3. To top it off, a portion of the money was used to write of an extravagant wedding as a business expense.

4. When a junior auditor raised his concerns about the audit he was shut down.

http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2017-06-29-guptaleaks-the-d...

http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2017-06-30-guptaleaks-the-d...

http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2017-11-26-guptaleaks-kpmg-...

6. They put out false reports that were partly used as motivation to get rid of ministers fighting corruption.

https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2017-09-15-kpmg-cans-sa...

KPMG were not the only multinational firm that were complicit in fleecing the South African tax payer of billions. See

Mckinsey:

http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2017-09-14-how-mckinsey-and...

SAP: http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2017-07-24-guptaleaks-anoth...

T-systems:

http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2017-11-14-exclusive-gupta-...

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1. fjsolwmv ◴[] No.16730721[source]
Auditors are never "independent". They work for someone. If that someone is government or a client, great. If the auditor works for management, maybe OK for finding employee malfeasance, but no good for management malfeasance.

And of course, like tests, no audit can prove correctness, only can find flaws.