BBC Learning English Words in the News 22nd December 2010

Ernst & Young sued over Lehman collapse

The attorney general of New York is suing accountants Ernst and Young over fraud linked to the collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers. The state's prosecutor is seeking at least US$150 million in damages from the accountants. Caroline Hepker reports: New York's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, has accused one of America's leading accounting firms of helping to hide massive accounting fraud at Lehman Brothers in the years before the bank collapsed in September 2008. Mr Cuomo says the accounting giant advised Lehman Brothers on obscuring US$50 billion through so-called Repo 105 transactions, which temporarily move liabilities off balance sheet. Ernst and Young has made no comment on the case, but the attorney general wants the firm to repay fees it received, totalling US$150 million, plus damages to investors. Ernst and Young was the outside auditor for Lehmans from 2001 until the firm's bankruptcy in September 2008. The failure of what had been a leading global financial firm triggered a crisis on Wall Street that tipped the world into deep recession. Caroline Hepker, BBC News

Words in the News bbclearningenglish.com

British Broadcasting Corporation 2010 Page 1 of 2

Vocabulary and definitions

accounting firms fraud collapsed obscuring

companies that prepare and check accounts for businesses deception suddenly failed here, hiding or preventing the discovery of some financial information

liabilities balance sheet

money that a person or business owes financial list to show what a company owns, owes and what money or income it received in a specific year

made no comment auditor

did not say anything in public financial expert who checks accounts are completed correctly

bankruptcy tipped

money ran out pushed

More on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12057170 Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2010/12/101222_witn_ny_sues_accountants_page.shtml

Words in the News bbclearningenglish.com

British Broadcasting Corporation 2010 Page 2 of 2