Results of Gazprom's auditing doubted

The Rilend company, the owner of about 12 million of shares of the Gazpromgas holding, is to apply to the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscowregion for canceling the decision on the validity of the 2000 audit reportby PricewaterhouseCoopers, a source in Rilend, which is an affiliate of theHermitage Capital Management investment fund, reported to RBC.In May-June 2002, the Moscow Arbitration Court rejected three claims anddid not consider two other claims filed by Rilend, on recognizing Gazprom'saudit report for 2002 invalid. Additionally, the court has already rejectedtwo Rilend appellations on these decisions. Rilend's main argument in courtwas that "in its audit report, the audit company concealed Gazprom'sbreaking law while making contracts" with the Gazeksport company, the ITERAgas company, the Kostromatruboinvest company, the Stroitransgazconstruction company and the Transgaz company, as well as while exportinggas and executing payments in foreign currencies within Russia..

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