Delays and confusion bug Barings case
Eleventh-hour court discussions this week threaten to add more delay and confusion to the already protracted Barings case, Accountancy Age has learned.
US vulture funds, the main creditors of the collapsed bank, last week succeeded in forcing Ernst & Young to resign as its liquidator. KPMG will take over, but the firm has just a fortnight to get to grips with the £1bn negligence claim against Coopers & Lybrand and Deloitte & Touche over their roles as auditors of Barings. The trial is due to start on 2 October.
The new liquidators will be helped by the fact that legal teams are staying in place.
But judicial issues and legal wranglings between E&Y and Barings’ creditors remain unresolved. As Accountancy Age went to press, all parties were due to attend a ‘security for costs hearing? in which the judge must ensure that there is collectively enough money to pay out in the event the defendants win.To conclude E&Y’s resignation, a parallel case management hearing is due to take place today.
The judge can either rubber-stamp the change-over of liquidators or make E&Y hold a creditors’ meeting. If the latter is decided, observers speculate the trial could be pushed back again.
But, Richard Heis, KPMG’s liquidator in charge of the case, told Accountancy Age: ‘There will be no impact on the start date of the trial due to the change-over.’
Meanwhile, an appeal by Coopers, now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers, against findings of the accountancy profession’s main watchdog is due to end this week. A judgement is not expected for several months.
Links
‘Vultures’ force E&Y to quit Barings
Date set for Coopers JDS challenge
Coopers’ Barings settlement collapses