The Court of Appeal has ordered the National Accounting Council to recruit a new auditor to reinvestigate the alleged embezzlement of Heng Chheang, former employee of tycoon and ruling party Senator Kok An, who gave up trying to find an auditor after being repeatedly rejected by accountants who refused to touch the case.

Presiding Judge Chay Chandaravann said yesterday that he had written in January to the council – a body of the Ministry of Economics and Finance, and the institution that first recommended a reinvestigation to the courts on the grounds that the last one had been incomplete – but is still awaiting its appointment of an independent accountant to re-audit the transactions between Chheang and Kok An’s companies.

In mid-December, the court gave Chheang the right to pick his own auditor, a prospect that proved impossible, said his attorney, Orn Hing.

“Previously, the Court of Appeal had allowed Mr Heng Chheang to choose new auditors by himself, but he could not find them, because no one dares to help him or work for him. So he requested the court to choose them for him” last month, he said.

An’s lawyer, Long Dara, said that they too were awaiting the re-audit’s outcome.

“We are willing to resolve [this] and put an end to this story, but we want each party to accept the truth in this case,” he said.

Ministry of Economics and Finance and National Accounting Council representatives could not be reached.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Buth Reaksmey Kongkea at [email protected]