Will Martin Lewis/MSE start a Tesco shares damages claim?

bowlhead99

jimjames wrote: »

Wouldn't the target be the accountancy firms that signed off the accounts rather than Tesco?

The interim accounts are not subject to full scope audit, and the prior year end accounts would have only had an overstatement of assets which was immaterial in the context of total NAV.

The auditor's job is not really to prevent and detect fraud, which is the job of the board, but follow a process to conclude whether the accounts are materially fairly stated, which will not necessarily pick up every single contentious accounting treatment. Obviously if the accounts are catastrophically overstated by billions then people go looking for the auditor's head on the block. If the SFO or financial regulators say the auditors did a deficient job then you have a better chance of suing them.