Audit irregularities may lead to Interia's removal from stock exchange

Interia.pl, the first Polish portal to be publicly listed, is threatened with being expelled from the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), after irregularities were revealed in its share issue prospectus. The Krakow-based Internet portal committed a crime under Polish law when it commissioned an audit by Polinvest Audit, owned by Janina Niedospial, the mother of Henryk Niedospial who is a member of the Interia supervisory board. The Securities and Stock Exchange Commission (KPWiG) failed to notice the error at the time of Interia's IPO, while the company's president, Tomasz Jazdzynski, insists that full information about the audit firm was presented in Interia's prospectus. Under Article 66 of the Accountancy Law, persons related to members of supervisory organs of a company may not serve as auditors in the examination of financial reports, if the examination is to be deemed independent. Apart from the threat of removal from the WSE, Interia also fears that its shareholders may seek compensation. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7) M.T.K.