Tough Questions For AIG's Auditors

摘要

Where were the auditors? Now that American International Group Inc.has admitted to a clutch of accounting improprieties and is mulling whether to restate its past results,an all-too-familiar question is emerging:Why didn't the auditor catch what was going on?Were misdoings hidden from AIG's longtime auditing firm,Pricewater-houseCoopers,or did the firm turn a blind eye to problems it should have seen? Indeed,some of the searing heat that has so far felled AIG Chief Executive Maurice R."Hank" Greenberg and several other execs could soon scorch the US17.5 billion accounting giant."I'm sure they will be under suspicion," says J.Edward Ketz,associate professor of accounting at Pennsylvania State University.