PwC faces Russian law suit
PricwaterhouseCoopers in Russia is to face legal action by a minority shareholder in the giant state gas provider Gazprom for whom the firm was auditor.
Mounted by the Hermitage Capital Management Fund, the law suits reflect a belief that PwC presented audit reports that allegedly ‘contradicted the facts.’
Hermitage has also filed a demand with the Russian Ministry of Finance that PwC’s licence to audit be suspended.
Such a move would see a major upheavel in the Russian accountancy market where the Andersen office recently chose to merge with Ernst & Young following the Enron scandal in the US.
Richard Buski, managing partner of PwC in Russia said: ‘We have not seen the law suit and therefore we cannot comment in detail on whatever may be contained in it.
‘We stand behind all our audits of Gazprom and will continue to do so in the future.’