Shanti Wins Big Judgment Accounting firm to pay AIDS agency $712,000by Henry K. Lee

Shanti Project, one of San Francisco's oldest AIDS housing services, has won a $712,000 judgment against its former auditors, allowing the agency to repay a nearly half-million dollar debt to the city, officials said yesterday.

The arbitration award represents a "complete vindication" for Shanti, whose financial controls came into question after an audit showed that the agency billed the city $450,000 for unauthorized expenses, said spokesman Paul Vander Waerdt.

"This clears Shanti's name and shows that the responsibility for the debt to the city was that of the accounting firm, which had conducted itself negligently," he said.

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