Livent was once a dominant North American live theatre company, with hits like Show Boat, Ragtime and Phantom of the Opera playing New York, Chicago,

Livent’s former chief financial officer Maria Messina was so deeply implicated in the theatre company’s fraud after failing to immediately report it that all she felt able to do was fight it from the inside, she told her former bosses’ trial today. <br />Crown prosecutor Alex Hrybinsky asked Messina, a chartered accountant, if she ever raised any concerns with outside auditors Deloitte & Touche when they were examining the books at the end of the 1997 fiscal year. <br />“No, I did not,” Messina told Superior Court. <br />“It was a very bad and difficult situation. I had known about the fraud from July 1997 until the year-end and I had not disclosed at that point. <br />“All I could do is fight it from the inside.” <br />Messina had been a partner with Deloitte in charge of auditing Livent’s year-end results before she was lured to join the Toronto-based theatre production company in May 1996 by its president and co-founder, Myron Gottlieb. <br />She said after she discovered the fraud she worked with the auditors from her old accounting firm to effect write-downs of what she knew to be inflated revenues. <br />“I did what I could to get the financials to the point where they were closer to what the actuals were without discussing the fraud,” she told Superior Court. <br />Gottlieb, 64, and partner Garth Drabinsky, 58, an award-winning theatre impresario, have pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and one of forgery. Their lawyers have implied that the fraud was orchestrated by former senior vice-president Gord Eckstein without their knowledge. Livent was once a dominant North American live theatre company, with hits like Show Boat, Ragtime and Phantom of the Opera playing New York, Chicago, Toronto and other major cities. Messina pleaded guilty in 1999 in New York State to making a false statement regarding Livent’s financial results and has not yet been sentenced. She is the subject of complaints from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that are on hold. Defence lawyers Brian and Edward Greenspan are to start cross-examining Messina on Monday

Livent was once a dominant North American live theatre company, with hits like Show Boat, Ragtime and Phantom of the Opera playing New York, Chicago,

Livent’s former chief financial officer Maria Messina was so deeply implicated in the theatre company’s fraud after failing to immediately r...

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