KPMG partners and executives decided collectively not to refer information about transactions between Bill Express and companies apparently related to it to the corporate regulator ASIC, the Supreme Court of Victoria heard yesterday.In 2007, KPMG's Bernie Szentirmay was in charge of the Bill Express audit and oversaw an unqualified audit report. He told the court that he believed the explanations given to him in relation to loans made to private companies within the Bill Express group even though he did not personally sight documentation to support many of the payments."No one has a crystal ball," said Szentirmay in response to questions about payments made out of Bill Express in 2007 that were never repaid.Szentirmay was asked why he accepted a letter as acceptable documentation to support loans of over $20 million that kept growing and were never repaid from Bill Express to a private company.The letter, signed by Sandro Di Donato, the owner of private companies TBS and APN (now trading as Activ8Me) outlined a 'set-off' arrangement whereby debts owed by Bill Express to APN would be set off against debts owed by TBS to Bill Express.Despite all three companies sharing the same premises at Eaglemont, Mr Szentirmay said he had made a judgement that the companies were not related parties and that all transactions between the companies were conducted at 'arm's length'.Szentirmay said, in considering whether to accept the letter as proof of the recoverability of the debts owed to Bill Express, he took comfort from the fact that APN had recently been awarded 'a significant commonwealth government broadband agreement'.The government deal, which involved being paid a subsidy to install satellite broadband for consumers in isolated areas, gave Szentirmay "some comfort that APN and Di Donato was a person of some substance", Szentirmay told the court.He said he did not know at the time that APN had been awarded the license by the government after receiving a guarantor agreement from Bill Express for APN.Szentirmay also said under questioning that debts and payments that comprised less than ten per cent of total company receivables do not need external confirmation under KPMG audit guidleines.By applying this rule, Szentrmay did not seek third party confirmation of two sales of SIMEX stock by Bill Express in 2007.Each tranche of stock was purchased for less than two million and sold shortly after, just before financial reporting dates, for almost six million dollars.Szentirmay told the court he had already been asked about the SIMEX stock transactions by the corporate regulator ASIC.