Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Builder.ai, one of the UK\u2019s best-funded tech start-ups, has relied on an auditor with long-standing links to its founder to sign off its accounts \u2014 a finding that has raised alarm with corporate governance experts.A partner at accounting firm PKF Littlejohn signed off the UK accounts of the artificial intelligence start-up, despite having previously served as a director of another company also set up by Builder.ai\u2019s founder, Sachin Dev Duggal, according to a review of hundreds of filings analysed by the Financial Times.Duggal stepped down last month as chief executive of Builder.ai and last week resigned as a director from the UK entity, but he remains on the group\u2019s board and retains the title of \u201cchief wizard\u201d. Builder.ai is still searching for a chief financial officer after its previous finance chief resigned in July 2023.\u00a0The London-based group says it uses artificial intelligence to develop apps and has received about $450mn from top investors including Microsoft, SoftBank, Qatar Investment Authority and Insight Partners.\u00a0The FT\u2019s analysis also shows that two overseas subsidiaries of Builder.ai have employed a slew of small audit firms in quick succession, including a Singaporean accountancy firm that also audited a now-notorious cryptocurrency hedge fund before it collapsed.Corporate governance experts said that the findings raise questions such as whether the person signing off the company\u2019s UK accounts could have had a conflict of interest, and why multiple auditors of the overseas entities resigned in quick succession.Other companies have previously faced scrutiny for their use of little-known firms to audit the books of key subsidiaries. Adani Group is among those to be targeted by short sellers over its use of small audit firms in India.\u00a0Builder.ai said: \u201cThe selection of auditors for Builder.ai\u2019s subsidiaries has evolved in alignment with our operational scale and revenue segmentation\u201d as well as local regulations, and that \u201cchanges in auditors were based on appropriate business needs at the point in time\u201d.The company added that it had \u201cnow engaged a Big 4 internal audit firm and a Big 4 statutory group auditor for consolidated oversight\u201d, underlining Builder.ai\u2019s \u201ccommitment to strong financial governance\u201d.\u00a0It said it was taking the search for a new CFO \u201cseriously\u201d and that in September a new global head of finance had joined the company, adding that it had also made \u201ca strategic change\u201d in its CEO after long-term discussions to meet the company\u2019s \u201cevolution and growth\u201d.\u00a0According to filings, in 2010 Paul Goldwin, then a partner of accounting firm Linn Maggs Goldwin, became a director of SMX Corporation, a British company that Duggal founded a decade earlier.\u00a0For several years Goldwin was the director responsible for signing the unaudited financial statements of SMX, which recently claimed to operate in disparate business lines including reselling computer hardware, investment consultancy and construction.\u00a0In January 2017 Goldwin, who had by then moved to mid-tier accounting firm PKF Littlejohn, resigned as a director of SMX. Later that year Duggal incorporated Builder.ai\u2019s London entity, recording its registered office address as PKF Littlejohn\u2019s headquarters in Canary Wharf.One of Builder.ai\u2019s subsidiaries in India previously had the letters SMX in its name, having been established in 2003 \u2014 13 years before Builder.ai itself \u2014 as SMX iExplore Software Services India.\u00a0Despite the apparent links between SMX and Builder.ai, Goldwin has signed off accounts for the Builder.ai UK business as its senior statutory auditor every year since 2021, including accounts filed last August.\u00a0Goldwin declined to comment.PKF Littlejohn said it was \u201cunable to comment on specific client work\u201d but maintained \u201cindependence and integrity in full compliance with relevant rules and regulations\u201d.John Webb, a corporate governance consultant who previously headed internal audit at JPMorgan Cazenove, asked whether \u201cthe audit firm, or any of its partners working in any way on the Builder.ai audit, have a conflict of interest through past or present connections with Builder.ai\u201d.\u201cUntil one has the answers, no conclusions or opinions can be made,\u201d he added.PKF Littlejohn said SMX and Builder.ai \u201care two separate companies, with no trading relationships between them\u201d, adding that before starting as Builder.ai\u2019s auditor, the firm \u201cexamined the situation and concluded that there was no reason why a previous role at a separate company would compromise our independence\u201d.\u00a0Builder.ai said it had \u201cno relationship\u201d with SMX Corporation.Builder.ai\u2019s main subsidiary in India has experienced a string of statutory auditor resignations. In 2017 Delhi-based GMB & Associates resigned. Its replacement, which appears to be a sole trader, lasted a year.The next auditor, VSC & Company, was replaced in 2020 by Navratn & Co, which appears to have no website.\u00a0Similarly, the first auditor of Builder.ai\u2019s Singaporean subsidiary, an apparent sole trader, was replaced after 11 months by Oakfield & Associates, which corporate filings show employs four partners. Oakfield also gave an unqualified audit to Three Arrows Capital in 2021, the year before the crypto investment firm collapsed in a high-profile scandal.Paul Barnes, a retired professor of finance at Nottingham Business School, said the resignations raised \u201cconcerns\u201d and \u201cusually a large company will employ a single large firm of auditors, especially if it\u2019s international\u201d.\u00a0Builder.ai said its board had consented to the auditors\u2019 appointments when \u201ctheir services aligned with the relative size of those subsidiaries\u201d. It added that the small size of some of Builder.ai\u2019s subsidiaries meant they \u201cmay not qualify for Big 4 audits\u201d, whose engagement criteria it said generally require an audit fee of between $350,000 to $750,000.\u00a0VSC & Company could not be reached for comment. The other Indian or Singaporean accounting firms or traders either did not respond or declined to comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Builder.ai, one of the UK\u2019s best-funded tech start-ups, has relied on an auditor with long-standing links to its founder to sign off its accounts \u2014 a finding that has raised alarm with corporate governance experts.A partner at accounting firm PKF Littlejohn signed off the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-249674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}