E&Y Operations Remain ‘Unaffected’

JEDDAH, 20 April 2004 — Accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP said yesterday that its operations in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Gulf have not been affected by a recent US court ruling. A report from Washington said a judge suspended E&Y on Friday from accepting new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-registered audit clients for six months in a case involving software group PeopleSoft Inc. “The court ruling means our operations are not affected anywhere outside the United States. It does not affect any of the services we provide to our clients,” an E&Y official said from the firm’s Bahrain office. E&Y has 17 offices in the Gulf, including five in Saudi Arabia.