The AMF, France's financial watchdog, yesterday faced accusations that it censored its own report into accounting irregularities at Rhodia, the chemicals company, in an apparent attempt to protect Thierry Breton after he was appointed finance minister last year.
The emergence of two versions of the same report - one with several paragraphs missing that contain criticisms of Rhodia's accounts and financial communication before 2002 - has fuelled suspicions that the AMF changed its own report to spare embarrassment to Mr Breton.
Mr Breton, chairman of Rhodia's audit committee from 1998 to 2002, has denied any wrongdoing. But suspicions are growing that the regulator toned down the report written by its investigators and approved by its chairman in January 2005 after a 19-month inquiry.
Mr Breton and the AMF yesterday declined to comment.
The existence of the two different reports was discovered by Hughes de Lasteyrie, a Belgian investor who lost about €40m (£27.4m) invested in Rhodia. He is suing the company's former directors and its parent company in French courts for false accounting and misleading investors.
"It is unimaginable that this kind of thing could happen at the FSA in the UK or the SEC in the US," Mr de Lasteyrie said.
See full Article (paid registration required).
Posts
