INSOLVENCY - MP appeals against Deloittes' BCCI fees
by Hooman Bassirian.
The Trade & Industry Select Committee is considering an investigation into Deloitte & Touche’s marathon liquidation of BCCI, following an appeal by Labour MP Keith Vaz.
Vaz, the former all-party spokesman on BCCI, has written to Martin O’Neill, the Select Committee’s chairman, demanding a public inquiry into the firm’s ‘conduct of the liquidation … and the fees Deloitte & Touche and their lawyers are reported to have levied’.
The firm’s controversial liquidation, which has run for more than five years, has netted more than $128m in fees. Deloittes has recovered around $4bn and paid creditors a dividend of around 24.5%.
In his letter to O’Neill, a copy of which has been seen by Accountancy Age, Vaz claims that Deloittes’ fees will have topped $1bn by the end of the liquidation. This would make it one of the most lucrative insolvencies in history.
Vaz says: ‘I do not think such level of costs and legal fees can be justified under any circumstances and allowed to pass without independent scrutiny.’
This latest challenge comes at an embarrassing moment for Deloittes.
In July it lodged an appeal against a ruling by the Luxembourg courts to slash a third off its fees for the gestion controllee (the first six months) of the liquidation.
The firm had originally filed a claim for #2.89m. But the courts rejected it, after the completion of a secret report last year by a panel of experts set up to probe its fee demands.
