According to the PCAOB report, the backdating of documents included glaring one action on April 6, 2010. The PCAOB inspection was scheduled to start the week of April 19, 2010. The audit issue in question involved the valuation of one client company's investments in another company's common and convertible preferred shares.
With O'Toole's knowledge, Estella called an E&Y staff person, who was not on the engagement team, in a conference room. That person was asked to give Estella their laptop and told to leave the room. Estella then inserted a flash drive into the computer that contained a form that he utilized to draft a memorandum regarding audit work related to the valuation ("H10.3 Working Paper"). Changes were made and the final version of the form was printed. Both O'Toole and Estella participated in back dating the form to Nov. 24, 1009.
The team had been informed by E&Y not to backdate any documents. Not only were new documents created, the memo wasn't saved to the laptop or the drive. Estella threw away the flash drive and gave the laptop back to the staffer. The agency said this was to avoid leaving an electronic trail.
Among missing documents from one audit that were backdated were a Review Procedures Memorandum, an Average Forward Foreign Currency Contracts Calculation and three checklists in working papers. Higgins was also told to create a document that tied-out final financial statements that replaced one that tied-out pre-final statements. She was also removed from the audit team last year. However, the PCAOB's December action did not indicated Higgins had left the firm.
O'Toole was with E&Y 20 years and two months, according to this LinkedIn page. He joined Citisoft as a principal in April. Estella's LinkedIn page shows he left the firm in October 2010 and does not indicate a new position.