The Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman Jeffrey Lucy has warned it may sue major accounting KPMG, the auditor of failed West Australian property group Westpoint Group.
ASIC chairman said at a Senate Committee hearing that it is “very much alive” the possibility of suing KPMG in a professional negligence action to recover investors’ lost funds in the failed $300 million Westpoint mezzanine schemes.
Lucy acknowledged that former Westpoint director Richard Beck, who under investigation by ASIC, was once the chief compliance officer for KPMG.
Lucy declared ASIC would sue KPMG on behalf of investors if Westpoint’s liquidators and receivers did not do so first.
"In the event there was nobody else willing to take it, and it passed the public interest test, yes we would take it. It is something we are very much alive to,” he added.
Australian Property Journal could not contact Mr Lucy late last night for further clarifications of his statements.
By Ted McDonnell
