Gupta auditor pleads for leniency

A former KPMG auditor who was responsible for the audits of Gupta-owned Linkway Trading has pleaded with the auditors regulating body not to deregister him, saying he has already been punished a lot.

An independent disciplinary committee found Jacques Wessels guilty in 2018 of all six charges related to improper conduct and tax evasion that the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (Irba) levelled against him.

“To some degree, I have been punished a lot. When I left KPMG, I only got two months’ salary. For a period between October 2017 and October 2018 I had no income. To ensure that my children go to school I had to sell my vehicle,” said Wessels.

He spoke for the first time on Thursday about the audit work he did for the Gupta-owned firms and his relationship with the family. He said the incident had damaged his trust in people because his Gupta clients consistently denied any wrongdoing when he spoke to them before the Gupta leaks.

“I have learned so many lessons,” he said. “I now believe in auditing firm rotation.”

Wessels, who now works for a small accounting firm, earning a gross salary of R62,000 a month, said he has exhausted all but his retirement savings. He told the committee he has a share in a game farm he could sell for R450,000.

The Auditing Profession Act 2005 allows Irba to impose a fine not exceeding R200,000 per charge.

Wessels said he acknowledges he caused damage to the auditing profession, especially to KPMG, but thinks there will not be any danger in allowing him to practise as an auditor again.