Defense sought to establish that someone at Baker Tilly had reversed an earlier decision to disclose related party transaction in CHC’s books.
CN FILE PHOTO.
Evidence tendered by the prosecution last Friday formed part of senior counsel Kannan Ramesh’s case this afternoon in his cross-examination of Baker Tilly partner Foong Daw Ching.
In a spreadsheet drafted by CHC’s audit manager Foong Ai Fang, several audit issues were recorded, including the need for CHC’s Xtron bond transactions to be disclosed as related party transactions in CHC’s 2007 financial statement. However, Ramesh pointed out that this disclosure was not reflected in the financial statement.
Ramesh then suggested that someone at Baker Tilly must have reversed or vetoed the decision prior to the issuance of the financial statement. To that, Foong said he could not comment.
Foong also refused to comment when Ramesh further suggested that this reversal of decisions would likely have been communicated to CHC’s engagement partner and upper management.
Ramesh, defense lawyer for Sharon Tan, also pointed out that the audit issues detailed in the spreadsheet corresponded with concerns highlighted by Tan Ye Peng in a document he had emailed to Foong on Jul. 21, 2008.
CN PHOTO: Daniel Poh.
Defense also showed a Blackberry exchange between Chew Eng Han and Kong Hee. Kong insisted that the auditors and lawyers had to be aware of all the transactions, including the Firna bond agreement, the acquisition of The Riverwalk, and Xtron transactions with Justin Herz Management.
Cross-referencing a Jul. 25 entry in Foong’s electronic diary indicating a meeting between him, CHC’s engagement partner Tiang Yii and technical partner Joseph Toh, Ramesh suggested that the meeting was held in response to Tan’s concerns. Foong disagreed, citing no basis for correlation between these two events.
He agreed, however, that based on documents produced in court, effort was made on CHC’s part for its external lawyers and auditors to go through the transactions involving Xtron and Firna bond subscriptions in 2008.
Court resumes tomorrow at 9 am.
中文报道 – CHC审讯：审计师更换对公开关联人士交易的立场
