KPMG is being sued for “no less than $1 billion in compensatory and consequential damages” by the bankruptcy trustee for New Century Financial.
The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. filed suit against its auditor, KPMG LLP, claiming that “reckless and grossly negligent audits” helped accelerate the firm’s collapse two years ago.
The lawsuits filed Wednesday said that specialists at KPMG tried to point out errors in New Century’s financial statements but were silenced by the KPMG partner in charge of the audits “to protect KPMG’s business relationship with, and fees from, New Century.”