Actually, this tweet was sent yesterday, but it’s too good not to share today. It’s regarding KPMG and the news that broke across the pond on Monday that the firm decided not to renew its sponsorship of Prince Andrew’s networking initiative for young entrepreneurs called [email protected].
The news that KPMG had backed out came following the Duke of York’s TV interview on BBC last weekend in which he answered questions about his friendship with convicted (and dead) sex offender and asswipe Jeffrey Epstein. The prince also denied he had sex with an underage American woman—one of Epstein’s accusers—who alleges Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew not once, not twice, but three times.
KPMG apparently decided last August to stop sponsoring [email protected], which the prince started in 2014. The firm’s sponsorship officially ended in late October.
Although KPMG would lead you to believe that Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeff wasn’t the main reason why it pulled its sponsorship, let’s be real: If any Big 4 firm needed to escape from under the dark PR cloud hovering over it, it would be KPMG.
So this tweet from Financial Times reporter Tabby Kinder yesterday pretty much says what we’re all thinking:
You know it's bad when KPMG is distancing itself over reputational risk… https://t.co/YtZLdupKBL
— Tabby Kinder (@Tabby_Kinder) November 18, 2019
Burn.