The Bank appropriated the fixed deposit (FD) in July 2019 to settle loan amounts due from seven promoter group companies.
The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has penalized Deloitte Haskins & Sells with Rs 2 crore and fined two chartered accountants for lapses in the audit of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) during FY2018-19 and FY2019-20.
NFRA has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on CA A B Jani and has barred him for five years from being appointed as an auditor or internal auditor or from undertaking any audit in respect of financial statements or internal audit of the functions and activities of any company or corporate.
Besides imposing a fine of Rs 5 lakh on CA Rakesh Sharma, the regulator has banned him for three years for being appointed as an auditor. Jani was the Engagement Partner (EP), and Sharma was the Engagement Quality Control Review (EQCR) for the audit of ZEEL from FY2019 to FY2020.
In September 2018, the NFRA said in a 30-page order that the Chairman of ZEEL, who is also the promoter of the Essel Group of Companies, issued a letter to Yes Bank committing ZEEL to a Rs 200 crore fixed deposit as a guarantee for the loans given by Yes Bank to the promoter group company Essel Green Mobility Ltd.
The bank appropriated the fixed deposit (FD) in July 2019 to settle loan amounts due from seven promoter group companies. The order said that neither the creation and maintenance of the FD nor its reappropriation by the bank was with the approval of the company’s board or shareholders.
The statutory auditors failed to identify and report this misrepresentation, it said.
“Our examination showed that the auditors were grossly negligent, failed to apply professional scepticism and due diligence, did not adequately challenge the management’s assertions, and failed to evaluate reporting of suspected fraud,” the regulator said.
TNFRA said this was evident from unauthorised guarantees/securities, the premature closure of the FD by the Bank and the unauthorised use of ZEEL’s funds to settle the loan of the promoter group companies, with the knowledge of the group chairman and ZEEL management