haysmacintyre resigning as auditors

Many thanks to "cherry1" for the link. It appears this comes just a few days after the Portuguese Court ruling. I hope Enid O'Dowd weighs in on this resignation because, having worked for Price Waterhouse, CA's (in my previous 'life') I can't remember the firm ever ditching a client. Quite the opposite in fact, they were always on the lookout for new clients. I hope Mr. Amaral, as a creditor of the McCanns is not adversely affected by this surprising resignation. It certainly will raise a lot of speculation!!

Having more thoughts about this resignation - possibly SY, in the course of the investigation, had reason to question certain aspects relating to the McCanns' rush to set up the Fund, such as funds being available to the McCanns for legal expenses, etc. Certainly any reasonable person would question why the parents of a missing child would need to be concerned about lawyers' fees, that is assuming they had nothing to hide.

I just find it odd that this accounting firm, which has been with the Fund since its inception would 'pick up sticks' and resign at this particular time. Possibly there was a disagreement with the clients over disbursements/investments; or the firm no longer wanted to be associated with the McCanns because they were considered to be hurting the firm's reputation.

The timing looks a little odd if all is well. It may be that the auditors are unhappy if it appears that the full legal costs are to be borne by the fund. The family support clause was removed from the M&A a few years ago and the legal fees are the personal liability of the appellants. While the auditors might have been happy to accept some of the expenses of earlier years on the grounds of materiality, a figure in six figures could be another matter.