The big four firm has confirmed that a settlement was reached with a whistleblower who alleged wrongdoing within the firm's tax division three decades ago but asserts the payment had no impact on investigations into the matter.
The Australian Financial Review recently reported that KPMG paid more than $500,000 to a former senior manager who alleged wrongdoing in its tax division. The allegations concerning KPMG's tax division are separate to the allegations of misuse of client data by the audit division currently plaguing the firm. The $500,000 figure has not been confirmed by the big four firm.
A KPMG spokesperson told Accounting Times that the “settlement agreement was reached in recognition of the substantial legal expenses incurred by the former employee”.
The firm told the publication that settlement deed "had no impact on the investigations" into the allegations that were made about the tax division.
"While KPMG treated these matters seriously, the historic nature of the allegations made corroboration particularly challenging. You have to remember that most of the claims dated back some two to three decades. We investigated the allegations to the best of our ability," a spokesperson told Accounting Times.
Details of the allegations
The report by the Australian Financial Review stated that KPMG learned about the whistleblower’s allegations in June 2023, when a lawyer acting for the former senior tax manager wrote to then KPMG chairman Alison Kitchen to allege “...
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