Auditor of GFG Alliance's Liberty Commodities fined in UK

LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Britain's auditing watchdog has fined an accounting firm and an accountant for failing to show enough professional scepticism when auditing Liberty Commodities Ltd (LCL), in its latest penalty related to metals magnate Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance.

• Auditor HW Fisher has been fined £140,000 ($186,500) and handed a "severe reprimand" for the LCL audit to March 31, 2020, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said on Tuesday

• Simon Mott-Cowan, who voluntarily ceased his audit practice at the end of 2025, has been fined £17,500 and issued with a "severe reprimand" over the same audit

• HW Fisher and Mott-Cowan did not immediately respond to requests for comment

• Fines were reduced by 30% after cooperation

• LCL dealt with physical trading, supply chain and logistics management of non-ferrous metals, semi-finished steel and raw materials required for steelmaking

• Audit breaches were numerous and serious but not intentional, dishonest, deliberate or reckless, the FRC said. It did not say financial statements were misstated

• The FRC has sanctioned a number of accountants in Britain over audits of companies in the GFG Alliance

• Gupta was once dubbed the "saviour of steel." But the failure in March 2021 of GFG's main lender, Greensill Capital, prompted a scramble to refinance. The UK Serious Fraud Office opened a fraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering investigation into GFG two months later

• GFG has denied wrongdoing and said last year that it had struck a deal with Greensill creditors on global debt settlement terms

($1 = 0.7505 pounds)

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Xevi Fontdegloria)