Bonus Season Is Not Looking Good at the King’s KPMG
According to reporting across the pond (including this story from City A.M. we shall be quoting in a moment), KPMG UKers are not going to have a fruitful bonus season due in large part to a slowdown in business. KPMG has slashed the bonus pool of its UK workforce and reined in commission for salespeople […]
The King’s KPMG Gets Fined for Rookie Mistakes
Another day, another Financial Reporting Council fine for KPMG. This time it is related to their audit of TheWorks.co.uk, a discount retailer specializing in arts, crafts, toys, books, stationery, and perpetual fire sales of various cheap stuff with which to clutter your domicile and desk drawers. On Wednesday, the FRC announced sanctions against KPMG and […]
Former Client Cockblocks the EY Split to Make Sure They Get the $2.7 Billion They’re Suing EY For
While it appears the EY split is going off the rails, despite assurances to the contrary from people who stand to make many millions of dollars from it, one former client — or rather, the client’s administrators as the client burned to the ground three years ago — is not satisfied with letting the drama […]
Apparently Staff at Deloitte UK Did Not Warm Up to the Firm’s Money-Saving Cold Office Policy
In what was a particularly dry day for news seeing as it was the first Monday of a new year and nothing ever happens in accounting anyway, yesterday’s Monday accounting news brief included a story ripped from BBC about Deloitte lowering the temps at its UK offices as policy. I shall endeavor to copy and […]
Unsurprisingly, Firms Did Not Totally Rat Themselves Out to the UK Audit Regulator About Exam Cheating
Exam cheating has been a hot topic in audit ever since EY got fined a record $100 million over the summer for cheating on ethics exams (ironically), and perhaps even before that when KPMG got caught using confidential information supplied to them by a PCAOB insider to improve the firm’s audit inspections years before. It […]
Did a PwC Partner Leak Client Financial Data? A Court Will Decide
We briefly mentioned the following case in an August 2020 link dump of several Big 4 lawsuits going on at the time, there is now a date set for court so we’re throwing out an update. The allegation is that former PwC north of England head Ian Green leaked sensitive information about his client, telling […]
EY Reminds Us That Audits Provide ‘Reasonable Assurance,’ Not a Guarantee That Billions of Dollars Aren’t Hidden From the Balance Sheet
The NMC Health collapse of 2020 is still haunting EY UK, this time in London High Court as NMC administrators accuse the firm of failing in their duties and not noticing “one of the biggest frauds ever alleged at a FTSE 100 company.” The administrators, whose job it is to find some funds to repay […]
Surprise, You’re Depressed
New research conducted across the pond by the accountant well-being charity caba shows that more than half of accountants surveyed — 56% — are stressed and burned out, compared to 41% of those across a range of sectors, business sizes, and positions. Writes ICAEW Insights about the survey results: Accountants are significantly more stressed than […]
Audit Firms Are Making More Money Than Ever But Their Auditing Still Sucks, Says Guy
For today’s episode of “What Can We Rag on Big 4 Firms For” we’re going to dive into this article I came across this morning in Fair Observer, an independent outlet which I’ve never heard of but hey, any article that bashes Big 4 firms is OK in my book. Let’s be real, visiting Going […]
EY Is Building an Even Better Better Working World With Its Expanded Neurodivergent Hire Plans
In April of this year, EY announced the launch of its Boston Neuro-Diverse Center of Excellence, the sixth of its kind EY has opened in the United States since launching the program in the mid-2010s. You see, it turns out that many — not all, but many — neurodivergent individuals are particularly excellent at data […]
EY UK Selects Old White Guy to Succeed Another Old White Guy As MP
The Financial Times is reporting today that former head of audit Hywel Ball is EY UK’s new managing partner “despite widespread speculation that it would be the first of the Big Four accounting firms to appoint a female leader.” That’ll teach y’all to speculate. Ball, a 35-year veteran of EY, beat out chief operating officer […]
Someone Break It to ‘UK’s Youngest Accountant’ That Accounting Is a Sh*tty Way to Become a Millionaire
Guys, allow me to introduce you to the UK’s “youngest accountant.” He’s making the rounds in the rags across the pond, so we figured we’d give him his 15 minutes of fame here in the good ole U.S. of A as well because we’re just generous like that. Ranveer Singh Sandhu is a 15-year-old “entrepreneur” […]
Dorky Accountant Robbed His Employer to Buy Hookers and Blow Because Some Dude at the Office Made Fun of Him
Y’all ready to meet a real bad ass? You sure? I’m not sure you can take this. Darren Carvill, 38, is headed to jail after a “weekend of madness” which included hookers and blow funded by approximately £170,000 ($220,000 USD) he stole from his employer, a car servicing company. The Sun reports: A source revealed: […]
Crappy Gambler Who Also Happened to Be an Accountant Jailed for Stealing From X Factor Winner
Not to show my ignint ‘Murican here but I have to admit I don’t know dick about X Factor. I think those one dudes were on there, you know, the ones who looked like skinny, middle-aged lesbians led by a bootleg Mick Jagger. To be fair, I can’t name an American Idol contestant since the […]
Man Who Took 10 Years to Get Certified Credits His Firm for Totally Unimpressive Accomplishment
A U.K. man is in the local paper after finally realizing his goal of becoming a certified chartered accountant after an impressive 10 years. Ten years? My how the time flies when you’re doing, well, anything but studying to become a certified chartered accountant. Michael Webb has qualified as a certified chartered accountant at the […]
Non-Religious Future PwC Partner Credits ‘Divine Intervention’ For Nabbing Purse-Snatcher
The Evening Standard reports that a soon-to-be PwC partner got to play the hero in the midst of a potentially record-breaking relay race in London, all while dressed like a bishop. Forty-year-old Max Livingstone-Learmonth was on his 10km (about 6.2 miles) leg of the I Move London race when he spotted a woman chasing a […]
KPMG U.K. Lawyers Up Because Not Breaking the Law is Hard, You Guys
The Financial Times did not hold back in its headline announcing the news on KPMG U.K.’s latest hire earlier this week: KPMG appoints risk management chief after accounting scandals. Ouch. Here, KPMG, you might need this. So just who is this brave individual willing to take on a brand-new role at a scandal-plagued accounting firm? […]
PwC and Deloitte Are Recruiting Like Crazy in the UK
Here's your news from across the pond courtesy of economia: PwC and Deloitte have been named among the top recruiters of graduates in 2015, with 1,570 and 1,100 vacancies respectively Graduate recruitment by the UK's top 100 employers is set to reach a level not seen for more than a decade, new research by High […]
And the Award for Most Innovative Audit Goes To…
The Investment Management Association (UK) recently held its inaugural Auditor Reporting awards and you'll be happy to hear three of the Big 4 were recognized for excellence in audit (I know you want to make a radio station joke here but read on and you KPMG haters will be disappointed): The awards were set out […]
Tax Superhero and George Michael Among Those Caught Using Tax Shelter in the UK
News recently came out that a few well-known celebs — among them, George Michael, the Arctic Monkeys, Sir Michael Cane and a loan shark convicted of rape — took to a (legal) tax scheme called Liberty in the UK to avoid taxes. 1,600 people are believed to have sheltered £1.2 billion in Liberty. The Times […]
PwC Can’t Make Up Its Mind on a Global Sick Leave Policy
ICYMI, PwC US Chairman Bob Moritz was in Washington today talking about flexibility and diversity and the importance of trustworthy fonts in autumnal color schemes at the White House Summit on Working Families (I made that last one up, obvs). On his panel, this happened: Bob Moritz, chairman of PriceWaterhouseCoopers: when we switched to unlimited […]
Major Player in Audit Game Makes Unfortunate Audit Quality Word Choice
This week, the ICAEW held an Audit Quality Forum debate on Should auditors do more to make audit reports reliable? Everyone sort of agreed that there's work to be done when it comes to audit quality but whatever work is done should be done slowly. Very, very slowly. Case in point: One of the key […]