- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Ruth Prickett2024-04-25T12:50:00
Trust in the integrity of corporate finance and auditing is vital, but repeated scandals over exam cheating at the largest multinational firms are denting faith in the system globally.
KPMG Netherlands became the latest firm to be penalized for alleged cheating by employees and was dealt a record $25 million fine by the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) earlier this month.
The scandal implicated senior managers and hundreds of staff. Marc Hageboom, the firm’s former head of assurance, received a personal fine of $150,000 and was banned for life from working for a firm auditing U.S. companies.
THIS IS MEMBERS-ONLY CONTENT. To continue reading, choose one of the options below.
News and analysis for the well-informed compliance or audit exec. Select an option and click continue.
Annual Membership $499 Value offer
Full price one year membership with auto-renewal.
Membership $599
One-year only, no auto-renewal.
KPMG Netherlands agreed to pay a record $25 million penalty levied by the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for allegedly allowing widespread cheating by employees on internal training exams and misinforming regulators about the misconduct.
Recent penalties against Big Four audit firms KPMG, PwC, and EY over allegations of widespread exam cheating have raised concerns prompting regulators to investigate the extent of the practice.
Ernst & Young will pay $100 million after admitting to SEC charges addressing systematic cheating among its accounting professionals on CPA license exams over four years. The fine is the largest the agency has ever imposed against an audit firm.
Chinese authorities banned PwC’s Chinese unit from performing audits in the country for six months, labeling the subsidiary’s flawed audit work as complicit in the failure of giant property developer Evergrande.
Erica Williams was reappointed to a second term as chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board after an ambitious first three years in the role that have seen the agency work to update many of its standards deemed outdated.
Software company Autodesk said it won’t restate several years of financial statements following an audit committee investigation into potential accounting misconduct.
