Cape Town – Auditing firms within the Nkonki network have passed a resolution terminating their “network agreement and affiliation with Nkonki Inc”.
On Monday evening, a week after the auditor general announced the termination of public auditing contracts with KMPG and Nkonki Inc (Sunninghill), lawyers for Nkonki Inc announced the auditing firm would undergo voluntary liquidation.
In a statement the Nkonki national executive said firms in Alberton, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, North West and Pretoria terminated their links to Nkonki Inc (Sunninghill) on April 19.
The national executive appears to be worried over brand reputation damage from the Nkonki Inc liquidation. The leadership said these other network firms are separate from Nkonki Inc (Sunninghill).
“The Nkonki network firms are firms within the Nkonki brand, but are separate legal entities to Nkonki Inc (Sunninghill office). We emphasise again that there is no cross-ownership or cross-directorship between the separate legal entities within the network,” read the statement.
“The allegations were made against Mr Mitesh Patel and Nkonki Inc (Sunninghill office) only. The allegations relate to a share transaction within the Sunninghill office.”
Law firm Nicqui Galaktiou said earlier in a statement that Nkonki Inc (Sunninghill) had no option but to voluntarily wind up after 25 years in business.
“The 180 employees including the executives, management, divisional heads and the minority shareholder … are victims who had no involvement nor knowledge in the shareholding and loan transactions, the funding thereof nor the due diligence processes that were conducted,” read the lawyers statement.
Auditor General Kimi Makwetu’s decision last week followed the resignation of Nkonki Inc’s CEO Mitesh Patel earlier in April. Patel resigned after investigative journalism centre amaBhungane revealed in a series of articles that his R107m “management buyout” of the auditing firm was funded by Gupta associate Salim Essa through Trillian Capital.
Nkonki’s national executive said individual network firms had “no link or connection to any Gupta-linked company or person”.
“Individual network firms distance themselves from any actions by Nkonki Inc (Sunninghill office) and or Mr Patel pertaining to the allegations made against them,” it stated.
* Sign up to Fin24’s top news in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TO FIN24 NEWSLETTER
Follow Fin24 on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. 24.com encourages commentary submitted via MyNews24. Contributions of 200 words or more will be considered for publication.
NEXT ON FIN24X