Sir Philip Green accuses Telegraph of colluding with Lord Hain in his naming in harassment story and bids to uncovers its sources January 23, 2019 Retail mogul Sir Philip Green is set for a court battle with the Daily Telegraph in an attempt to uncover the newspaper’s sources for its front page story alleging harassment by an unnamed businessman. Arcadia’s lawyers were granted an interim injunction preventing the naming of Green and Arcadia as the subjects of the piece. However, [...]
Audit watchdog should be scrapped ‘as swiftly as possible’ says Legal & General chair January 23, 2019 The government should act “as swiftly as possible” to abolish and replace the UK’s audit watchdog, MPs were told today. Sir John Kingman, who chaired a review into the operation of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), said the regulator’s senior leadership should be overhauled in the meantime. “I would like to see the government get [...]
The earl-y bird catches the worm: City law firm hires aristocratic new partner January 23, 2019 Law firm Michelmores announced today it had hired the Earl of Devon as a partner in its disputes team. Charles Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon, joins the firm from US legal giant Latham & Watkins – the second largest law firm in the world by revenue. Although Courtenay will be based in Michelmores’ London [...]
SFO publishes terms of deferred prosecution agreement with Tesco after reporting restrictions lifted January 23, 2019 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has published the full terms of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) it agreed with Tesco following the 2014 accounting scandal. Reporting restrictions around the DPA – a voluntary agreement which allows companies to forego prosecution by fulfilling certain requirements – were lifted when former Tesco director Carl Rogberg was acquitted today. [...]
Charges dropped against former Tesco executive Carl Rogberg in fraud trial January 23, 2019 The case against the third defendant in the Tesco fraud trial Carl Rogberg has been dropped today. Tesco executive Rogberg, 52, a former finance director at the supermarket giant, was charged with fraud, alongside fellow executives Chris Bush and John Scouler after a hole was found in Tesco’s accounts in 2014, wiping £1.5bn from its [...]
Rise of the bean counters: Accountants complain Oxford English Dictionary definition is ‘old-fashioned’ January 23, 2019 Accountants should not be dismissed as dull bean-counters, a major industry body has said as it takes issue with the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of the role. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (Acca) said it supports an effort by Gary Turner, the managing director of Xero, who claims that the word experts need to [...]
Government refusal to extend pay gap reporting rules to Big Four branded ‘disappointing’ January 22, 2019 The government has been accused of letting the Big Four audit firms “evade reporting on their pay ratios” by excluding firms with their business model from new legislation. The government’s small business minister refused to say whether new rules on executive pay transparency would be extended to partnerships during a grilling by MPs today. Members [...]
Watchdog investigation into KPMG’s Carillion audit at ‘critical stage’ January 22, 2019 The UK’s audit watchdog said its investigation into KPMG’s audit work for collapsed construction giant Carillion is at a “critical stage”. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issued an update this morning on its probe into the Big Four firm following “significant public interest” in the case. Carillion’s collapse in January last year has become a [...]
Joint audit could inject some competition into the market January 22, 2019 Last week, the House of Commons’ Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee opened hearings on its influential inquiry into the future of audit. Top of its agenda will be the proposed remedies set out by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in its recent review, which could bring wholesale change in the UK’s listed [...]
Shares rocket in listed law firm Keystone following strong trading update January 21, 2019 Shares in Keystone Law jumped by nearly 15 per cent today after it said it expects to be “comfortably ahead” of market profit expectations for its financial year. Keystone, which became just the third UK firm to float when it went public in November 2017, said it continued to trade strongly in the second half of [...]