KPMG relied on the untrustworthy

KPMG took over as Bill Express auditors in 2007 and delivered one unqualified audit for the full financial year ending June 2007 and only a single 'modification' on the half yearly report for the six months ending December 2007.

Just three months later the company was under administration by PPB. In July 2008 the firm was put into liquidation.

Despite being warned by their supervisor, KPMG partner Bernie Szentirmay, that Bill Express' CEO Ian Christiansen was 'untrustworthy', the auditors relied extensively on explanations from him in order to sign off on large low-doc loans and payments made by the listed company, said Jacob Gunsberg of KPMG at a liquidator's hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday.

As the company floundered in the first few months of 2008, Christiansen put together a complex $52 million deal that would cancel most debts and bring all the Bill Express group companies into one entity, the Supreme Court was told on Friday.

Key to the deal was Bill Express buying APN (trading as Activ8Me) from Enzo Di Donato's cousin, Sandro Di Donato.

Gunsberg was shown a copy of a diagram of the deal and confirmed that the auditors had relied on the diagram and Christiansen's explanations to satisfy themselves that Bill Express was a going concern in February 2008.

However, when asked to explain the deal to the court, he admitted that he could not.

"You and Bernie Szentirmay relied on this document did you not?" asked counsel for PPB, Peter Bick.

"At the time I understood it," replied Gunsberg.

Bick asked the KPMG audit manager where the debts owed to Bill Express went under the complex deal that would see Bill Express left with a net debt of $5.4 million.

"If APN becomes part of the Bill Express group, then the amounts owing to and from Bill Express get netted off because it is all one company," said Gunsberg.

"Netted off or written off?" asked Bick.

"I'm not sure what you mean."