I worked for a big 4 audit firm (big 5 then) for 4 yrs in the late 90s. 1st in Paris (2 yrs) & then in London. One of my last assignments was the audit of a medium size firm in the financial sector. I was the "senior in charge", ie the guy managing the audit team at the client's.
It was a mess. The legal structure was very complex w/ lots of empty entities that had been built over time to avoid paying taxes. The business was close to bankruptcy, most of its accounting team had left & there was no consistent bookkeeping. The consulting branch of my audit
firm had been hired (at a huge fee) to rebuild the books. After a couple of weeks there I realized that I couldn't connect the dots: I understood some pieces of the puzzle but could not put it together. A guy in my team that was way smarter than me & that I liked a lot thought
the same. I went and talked to my audit partner & told him about my concern (first time I had to do that in my 4 years there). I could see that he had no clue either but didn't want to lose the client and the fees generated by the consulting job... I left that firm soon after...
