Former KPMG auditors claim watchdog failed to give them a fair hearing over Carillion allegations
The former KPMG employees being investigated by the UK’s accountancy watchdog over their work auditing collapsed construction giant Carillion have claimed the regulator has failed to give them a fair hearing.
The former KPMG employees said the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) did not give them an opportunity to answer all of the allegations against them, according to the Financial Times.
Following claims made to the tribunal that former KPMG senior manager Alistair Wright had not been given the chance to respond to the FRC’s allegations, the regulator requested that it be allowed the bring Wright back for a second round of cross examination.
However, tribunal chair Sir Stanley Brunton rejected the FRC’s request, after claiming that bringing Wright back for cross examination would not be “fair or appropriate.”
Lawyers acting on behalf of Wright’s fellow defendants – including audit partner Peter Meehan, senior manager Richard Kitchen, and junior auditor Pratik Paw – later claimed that their clients had not been given a fair hearing too. However, the FRC did not request that they come back for further cross examination.
The claims that the FRC did not given defendants a fair hearing raises the possibility that certain allegations could be thrown out.
The claims come after the FRC accused KPMG and six of its former auditors of misleading its inspectors, by forging documents.
In its final submissions, the Big Four firm said it “has become absolutely plain through the course of the hearing that the only people implicated in the misconduct are the individual respondents.”