Published on December 21, 2023 at 5:20 p.m.Updated December 21, 2023 at 6:14 p.m.
Three years have passed since the accounting disciplinary trial brought by the audit policeman to the auditors of the group holding company William Saurin, Mazars and PwC Audit. This case gave rise to the heaviest sanctions ever imposed by the H3C (Higher Accounts Council), for serious inadequacy and lack of rigor in the audit carried out to control the accounts of Agripole, the parent company of William Saurin.
The listeners had not seen that Monique Piffaut, the “Mamie Cassoulet” who had built an agri-food empire, had been rigging her accounts for years. The deception was discovered when she died in 2016. She left behind a debt of 300 million euros and 3,000 employees. In February 2021, Mazars was fined 400,000 euros and PwC Audit 50,000 euros.
Fine multiplied by six
The two cabinets then decided to refer the matter to the Council of State. Which rendered its decision on December 18. Without precedent, the public establishment increases the sentences handed down. Mazars is sentenced to 800,000 euros and PwC Audit to 300,000 euros. Until now, the Council of State was content to confirm the H3C sanctions without increasing them.
Why this decision? Alongside the appeals of the auditors, the president of the H3C had filed an incidental appeal: according to her, the Sanctions Commission had not been severe enough. In October 2020, at the end of the trial, the general rapporteur Thierry Ramonatxo, equivalent to the prosecutor, requested the maximum penalty against each firm, i.e. a sanction of 1 million euros and a temporary suspended ban on practice.
“In view of the seriousness of the breaches characterized by the sanction decision, the direct involvement of the applicants and the financial capacity of the company (Mazars like PwC Audit, Editor’s note), the president of the H3C is justified in requesting that the sanction is pronounced. pronounced by the restricted formation is aggravated,” indicates the Council of State.
Mazars has always maintained that it had not failed in its internal control procedure and insisted on the particular nature of this affair, because it involved an organized gang fraud, but also inappropriate behavior on the part of the company. from Pierre Sardet, partner. de Mazars, auditor of Agripole since 1999. The latter, since dismissed for serious misconduct, was also an advisor on the transfer of the assets of “Mamie Cassoulet”. “Mazars takes note of this decision and is studying possible avenues of appeal. The organization is in a continuous process of improving all of its risk and quality management procedures,” the firm said. PwC Audit also takes note of this decision.
