Ex-KPMG senior ‘not dishonest’

R6.9M SPENT: GUPTA SUN CITY WEDDING AN ‘ERROR’

Wessels allegedly helped Linkway to avoid paying Sars over R2 million in taxes.

The Irba charges range from improper conduct and the flouting of auditing policies to fraud and money laundering.

Irba has accused Wessels of being dishonest and helping the controversial Gupta family to commit tax evasion while responsible for auditing Linkway as lead partner.

Acting for Wessels, advocate Azhar Bham said there “ought to have been a degree of scepticism and inquiries” in his audit. He said Wessels didn’t have any dishonest intention to dodge tax.

Bham was making oral arguments on Sunday at the Irba disciplinary inquiry of KPMG.

Irba has described Wessels’ audit of Linkway as “grossly negligent”. Wessels allegedly helped Linkway to avoid paying Sars more than R2 million in taxes.

Linkway was also allegedly used to divert R30 million earmarked for the Vrede Dairy Farm Project in the Free State to fund the notorious Gupta family wedding in 2013 at Sun City.

Wessels and four other KPMG directors attended the wedding, which called into question KPMG’s independence. Wessels resigned in September 2017 after KPMG decided to take disciplinary action against him.

Irba’s audit investigator Janica Boshoff provided evidence last month, accusing Wessels of amending the Linkway financial statements to shift R6.9 million, which was used to pay the accommodation bill for the wedding.

The R6.9 million was allegedly shifted from operating expenses to cost of sales in Linkway’s financial statements to give rise to a tax deduction from Sars. The money was a personal and not a business expense, which should have been categorised as a loss to Linkway, but Wessels proceeded to sign-off on the financial statements.

Bham said Wessels has admitted to this “error”, saying that he should have picked it up earlier.