Accounting

A PricewaterhouseCoopers partner has reached a settlement in a case alleging she was involved in a $3.3 million scheme to defraud her husband’s employer.

In a first for a Big Four firm, PwC has made good on its promise to appoint an independent chair to its board and has tasked law firm Webb Henderson and former top judge with tracking its progress on other commitments made in the wake of its tax leaks scandal.

Citing a wish to focus on tax, KPMG Australia will restructure its business and shut down its separate commercial law practice, making around 30 roles redundant.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to pay $8.25 million to settle a class action on behalf of Axsesstoday bondholders over an allegedly misleading bond prospectus, bringing the settlement total to $9.5 million after a group of insurers agreed to pay $1 million to settle the class action’s claims.

A Senate report into the government’s use of consultants, launched in the wake of PwC’s leak of confidential Treasury information, has recommended an inquiry into whether partnerships should be subject to the same regulations as corporations and again called on PwC to release the names of all those involved in the leak of confidential government information.

The Fair Work Commission has found a former PricewaterhouseCoopers director should not have relied solely on a colleague’s text message in deciding to resign while on leave, rejecting her argument that the accounting firm had essentially forced her resignation.

A new report has blasted the NSW government’s reliance on the Big Four consulting firms, saying it has led to a “downward spiral” of the public sector, and urged the state to never use their services for “core” government work and only as a “last resort” for other matters.

Noumi and ASIC are challenging a finding that the food manufacturer waived legal professional privilege over a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by its lawyers at Ashurst by disclosing the report during an ASIC investigation.

The auditors of self-managed superannuation funds that clients of Melissa Caddick invested with the Sydney fraudster and her company Maliver have hit back at class action claims, saying the clients have themselves to blame for handing over “direct control” of their funds.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is facing a lawsuit by the executor of a deceased estate alleging the accounting firm gave negligent advice and acted with a conflict of interest while advising on tax liabilities for the deceased’s $100 million in assets.