In a story published in the New York Times, a whistle-blower has brought to light allegations of falsification of sales records and financial standings of a prominent German manufacturer of specialized pipes in the gas and oil industry, recently purchased by Precision Castparts, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary based in Portland, Oregon.

According to the article by Jack Ewing, "How Berkshire Hathaway May Have Been Snookered in Germany," Precision Castparts was alerted of numerous alleged falsification of sales invoices and financial standing of the Wilhelm Schulz company after the purchase was complete. The whistle-blower tip to Precision Castparts led to an investigation of the Wilhelm Schultz company. "The tip eventually led to the exposure of an elaborate conspiracy involving fake sales invoices, phantom customers, and hacked computer systems, according to testimony in a legal dispute. As a result, according to the findings of an American arbitration panel, Precision Castparts, paid 800 million euros, or $870 million, for a company that was worth only about one-fifth that price," as reported in the NYT feature.

At the time of publication, the full story had the most recent case updates — and the story can be found here https://nyti.ms/2Whb7IT.