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September 24, 2023

Partner Ethics – or Lack Thereof

I'm a senior at a top 20 CPA firm, the lower part of the top 20, up for manager next year. I work on roughly half public and half private jobs, all under the umbrella of financial services. All my private jobs are under one manager and all my public jobs are under a different one. There are 4 partners I work with and I have encountered ethics issues after ethics issues with two of the partners. Long story short we have waived on anything from proposing adjustments, to not disclosing obvious going concern issues, knocking a material weakness down to a significant deficiency on a public job because that was the deal the partner made with the client, over valuing assets valued at FMV by an exceptional amount and just a general "let's document around that" kind of attitude. 

With each of these issues that come up I voice my opinions to the partner (probably far more strongly than I should as a senior) going as far as saying this is wrong and not ethical. My managers have never taken a side even though they have been present for each of these "discussions". Partners have admitted I am right but we are still going with their way. 

Has anyone been in this situation? What did you do or what do you recommend? I'm pretty set on leaving and trying to go down the big four road even though that would likely mean I would not get my manager promotion next year, or do I committ career suicide and blow the whistle?

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