The Theater's Backstage: When Numbers Serve the Show—A Case Study on Livent (Part 2)*

Abstract

On December 20, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada ended the suspense surrounding 20 years of court cases when it found the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche (Deloitte) guilty of negligence in its audit of the 1997 financial statements of Livent Inc. As part of a concurrent process, the Discipline Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (now CPA Ontario) also had to rule on the conduct of the professionals involved in auditing Livent. This case study asks students to play the role of members of the Discipline Committee assigned to judge the work performed by Deloitte's auditors. The students should be able to identify instances of noncompliance with professional standards, mainly Canadian Auditing Standards 200 and 240, and determine whether the auditors should be found guilty of professional misconduct. The students will be asked whether they would have arrived at the same verdict as did the Discipline Committee members.