Notice of Hearing
News types: Generic Announcement, Investigations, Statements
Published: 6 May 2022
The hearing of the Formal Complaint of the Executive Counsel to the Financial Reporting Council (“FRC”) under the Accountancy Scheme against KPMG LLP, a former KPMG partner, and certain former KPMG employees will resume before the Disciplinary Tribunal of the FRC on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 May 2022.
The hearing will take place in person for the Parties at the International Dispute Resolution Centre at 1 Paternoster Lane, London EC4M 7BQ. The hearing will commence at 10.00am each day.
The hearing is open to the public, but limitations of space may lead to restrictions on personal attendance. Members of the press and public may be given remote access to the hearing on application to Jessie Liu of the International Dispute Resolution Centre at [email protected] . Upon application for the link for virtual remote access, applicants will be required to provide a written undertaking (1) not to make any video or audio copy of any part of the proceedings and (2) not to copy or to pass to any other person the internet link to the proceedings.
The Formal Complaint alleges Misconduct (as defined at paragraph 2(1) of the Accountancy Scheme) against KPMG and certain individual Respondents regarding the provision of allegedly false and misleading information and/or documents to the FRC in connection with the FRC’s Audit Quality Reviews of two audits carried out by KPMG: the audit of the financial statements of Carillion plc for the period ended 31 December 2016 and the audit of the financial statements of Regenersis plc for the period ended 30 June 2014.
KPMG is a member firm of the ICAEW and the individual respondents were members of the ICAEW, apart from the Sixth Respondent, who was a provisional member of the ICAEW.
The allegations in the Formal Complaint are made against each of the individuals only in respect of their own conduct and do not suggest that any individual was responsible for the Misconduct of any of the other individuals subject to the Formal Complaint.
The Formal Complaint does not allege Misconduct in the performance of the relevant audits, nor does it allege that in either case the financial statements had not been properly prepared. The audit, and preparation, of the 2016 Carillion financial statements are the subject of separate investigations, as announced on 29 January 2018 and 19 March 2018 respectively.
The FRC’s investigation was opened in November 2018 after KPMG had self-reported certain matters relating to the review of the 2016 Carillion audit. The scope of the investigation was expanded in July 2019 to include the review of the 2014 Regenersis audit after KPMG had self-reported certain matters relating to that review. The Formal Complaint was issued on 15 March 2021.