The auditors of Bill Express were subjected to pressure and foul language from the directors of the failed payments company to deliver unqualified audits, the Supreme Court of Victoria heard yesterday. Steven Schonberg from Pitcher partners and Jacob Gunsberg from KPMG have been quizzed by counsel for the liquidator of Bill Express, PPB, in the court this week.Schonberg told of threatening behaviour from the figurehead of the Bill Express group Hal Christiansen, who died in 2008."Mr Christiansen said to me 'You want to f'n qualify the audit regardless!'" said Steven Schonberg under questioning.Counsel for PPB asked Schonberg whether he felt Christiansen was bullying him, to which he replied no, but that Christiansen's language 'might be construed as bullying'."It was clear to me that Hal and the directors found the thought of a qualified audit report as very difficult, they clearly didn't want a qualified audit report."Pitcher Partners were replaced by KPMG in late 2006 who won a tender.The KPMG team was led by Jacob Gunsberg who told the court that despite assessing Bill Express as a 'high-risk' client with numerous concerns about inter-company loans, bank account arrangements and financial management, KPMG only ever gave one minor qualification on an audit for Bill Express.Gunsberg said he was warned by Pitcher Partners staff when he took on the Bill Express job about accounting issues in the group of companies. In particular, "a lot of transactions to private companies in the group, some unauthorised, on a regular basis."