PwC Fights $5.6 Billion Fraud Trial Over Taylor Bean’s Collapse
- PwC accused of missing red flags in seven-year fraud scheme
- Deloitte settled similar claims over the fraud in 2013
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PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP failed to spot for seven years a multibillion fraud that led to the demise of Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., a lawyer for the lender’s bankruptcy trustee told a Miami jury on Tuesday.
At issue is PwC’s work for Colonial Bank, which bought mortgages that Taylor Bean originated. Had PwC adequately vetted documents that Taylor Bean gave to the bank, it would have spotted a multiyear fraud by executives at both firms far earlier and put an end to it, the trustee claims. Instead, federal regulators uncovered it in 2009 and Taylor Bean and Colonial went bankrupt. The bankruptcy trustee sued in 2013 seeking $5.6 billion in damages.