Britain’s independent financial auditing regulator begun last week four different investigations into Sanjay Gupta’s Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance’s aluminium and steel companies and the audits of their books carried out by an outside auditor.
The Financial Reporting Council said it is looking into the financial statements filed by financial statements of Alvance British Aluminium Limited (formerly Liberty Aluminium Lochaber), Liberty Speciality Steels Limited, Liberty Steel Newport Limited, and Liberty Performance Steels Limited.
The statements under examination were audited by independent auditor King & King and cover the year ending on 31 March 2019, except for the statement from Liberty Performance Steels, which covers the year ending on 31 March 2020.
The FRC said the decision to audit these four statements was made at a meeting in late February and will be carried out by the FRC’s Enforcement Division under the Audit Enforcement Procedure. The FRC cautioned that the investigation only involves the relevant Statutory Auditors, and that nothing should be assumed by its announcement that any other individual or firm is under investigation.
For its part, GFG Alliance said it has been changing up a great deal of its financial situation recently.
“We recognise the importance of strong audit practices and have been evolving our corporate structure and governance as we continue our efforts to restructure and refinance our portfolio.”
GFG Alliance has been at the center of much turmoil recently after a Greensill Capital, a major financial backer, suddenly became insolvent over a year ago. Since then the firm has been in a mad rush to make up for the loss. Simultaneously, regulators have raised questions over the financial dealings of the various GFG Alliance firms, culminating with the announcement of an investigation and a raid by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office last month.