Free Republic

Silicon Valley Bank failed just 14 days after KPMG LLP gave the lender a clean bill of health. Signature Bank went down 11 days after the accounting firm signed off on its audit. What KPMG knew about the two banks’ financial situation and what it missed will likely be the subject of regulatory scrutiny and lawsuits. KPMG signed the audit report for Silicon Valley Bank’s parent, SVB Financial Group SIVB Regulators seized the bank on March 10 after a surge of withdrawals threatened to leave it short of cash. “Common sense tells you that an auditor issuing a clean report,...

Government tries to ban Blair aide's revelationsBy Patrick Hennessy and Melissa Kite (Filed: 27/06/2004) The government is attempting to censor a new book by one of Tony Blair's former key advisers that will reveal embarrassing new details of the fiery relationship between the Prime Minister and Gordon Brown. Sir Andrew Turnbull, the Cabinet Secretary, is pressing Derek Scott, who was Mr Blair's chief economics adviser from 1997 until last December, to remove large sections of his account of his time at No 10 on the grounds that they breach the Official Secrets Act. The book, Off Whitehall, will be published...