KPMG's problems seem to go from bad to worse.

Earlier during the week, we had reports that the US Government was pushing hard to revive its tax shelter case, promising to play fair this time. Yeah right.

Then it was hit hard with a settlement requiring it to pay $80 million to settle a lawsuit alleging accounting fraud at Xerox eight years ago.

And if that's not bad enough, a court appointed investigation has found that the firm sanctioned some shifty accounting tricks at failed subprime lender New Century Financial.

More details in The Wall Street Journal which quotes the investigator, Michael J Missal, saying that KPMG had "contributed to certain of these accounting and financial reporting deficiencies by enabling them to persist and, in some instances, precipitating the company's departure from applicable accounting standards."

"In his report, Mr. Missal said that in one instance, a KPMG partner who led the New Century audit team castigated a subordinate who had questioned one of the company's accounting practices as it prepared to file its 2005 annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission," writes the WSJ. "According to Mr. Missal, the KPMG partner told the subordinate in an email: "I am very disappointed we are still discussing this. As far as I am concerned, we are done. The client thinks we are done. All we are going to do is p- everybody off."

As Broc Romanek's CorporateCounsel.net. blog says, it has eerie echoes of Enron.