In the text of his prepared remarks to the House Financial Services subcommittee this morning, Fortune points out that Markopolos says Walter Noel’s Fairfield Greenwich Group, thought to be Madoff’s largest feeder fund, switched auditors three times in three years. Meaning that between 2004 and 2007, no one accounting firm was charged with tracking their numbers from year to year. “To change your auditor like that is highly unusual,” Pornsit Jiraporn, a finance professor and the author of a study on “auditor shopping,” tells Fortune. Further, two of the auditing firms were located overseas, where accounting standards are not as high. “Sometimes there is a legitimate reason for switching once, but this is very suspicious.” Related: The Noels reportedly enjoyed some nice Perrier-Jouet this weekend.
Did Madoff’s feeder fund shop for friendly audits? [Fortune]
Walter Noel daughter Marisa Noel Brown had party at her Greenwich, CT home serving $7,000 bottle champagne [Original Greenwich Diva]
