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Toshiba has been on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's supervision list
since mid-March as it has failed to clear up concerns about its
internal controls after the $1.3 billion accounting scandal.
That scandal preceded the crisis now engulfing Toshiba over
billions of dollars in cost overruns at its now bankrupt U.S.
nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric Corp.
The world's biggest pension fund filed the suit last month,
seeking 3.5 billion yen ($31.40 million) in damages from Ernst &
Young ShinNihon LLC, saying the auditor failed to properly
monitor Toshiba.
"Showing a considerable lack of care, defendant gave an
unqualified opinion" certifying Toshiba's statements, the $1.3
trillion GPIF claimed in the suit, filed on May 17 in Tokyo
District Court and reviewed by Reuters on Friday. "As a result,
plaintiff suffered losses."
A ShinNihon spokesman said the firm "will respond appropriately
based on a careful review of the filing".
An investigation of the accounting scandal found widespread
accounting errors throughout the laptops-to-nuclear
conglomerate, and blamed a corporate culture in which employees
found it difficult to question their superiors.
GPIF estimates its Toshiba investment losses from the scandal at
12.3 billion yen, the ShinNihon suit says. GPIF has sued Toshiba
itself over the accounting scandal, seeking a total of 13.2
billion yen in several filings.
(Reporting by Takashi Umekawa; Writing by William Mallard;
Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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