EY files criminal complaint over German newspaper’s leaked report
EY has reportedly submitted a criminal complaint over a newspaper’s publication of a classified report into its work for payments firm Wirecard.
Criminal prosecutors in Munich received a complaint about the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt on Monday, the Financial Times reported.
The parliamentary report, on behalf of the committee looking at the Wirecard scandal, concluded there were major failures in the Big Four firm’s audit.
EY was found to have failed to identify indicators of fraud and to have failed to fully executive professional guidelines.
More than 150 internal EY documents were submitted to the committee but legally classified.
Public interest argument
Newspaper Handelsblatt published the entire, unredacted 168-page version of the report on its website on 11 November. The publication of the document was in the public interest, it said.
The report was categorised under the second-highest level of secrecy and MPs chasing its publication had previously been dismissed in a lawsuit in August.
In a statement to the Financial Times, EY said: “From EY’s point of view, handing over of the report [to Handelsblatt] constitutes a violation of the legal process, violates the highest court’s authority and creates a fait accompli.”
Employees who were identified in the report by name were violated and the report’s publication unduly exposed the firm’s business secrets, EY said.