- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Adrianne Appel2024-08-20T18:56:00
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) agreed to pay 15 million pounds (U.S. $19.5 million) for failing to report suspicions of fraud taking place at investment firm London Capital & Finance (LCF) before it collapsed, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced.
The fine marks the first time the FCA has penalized an auditing firm, the agency said in press release Friday.
LCF, registered as a public company in 2015, sold £236 million (U.S. $295 million) in bonds to investors promising returns of 6.5 to 8 percent a year. But the firm entered administration in January 2019, taking more than 11,600 investors down with it. The government has since bailed out eligible bondholders.
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Big Four firms PwC and EY were each penalized by the Financial Reporting Council for alleged shortcomings during their respective audits at collapsed investment firm London Capital & Finance.
Big Four audit firm PwC was assessed a $2.75 million penalty by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for failures in its auditor independence processes related to a 2018 engagement.
Three of the Big Four audit firms saw increases to the deficiency rates observed in their latest Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspection reports, while KPMG had its results redacted.
Brazilian energy and sugar company Raizen Energia SA and its Swiss trading subsidiary will pay $850,000 in fines to settle charges that they engaged in illegal noncompetitive transactions.
Spain’s data protection authority fined retailer Uniqlo Europe 270,000 euros (U.S. $294,000) over admitted violations of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security issued guidance to academic research institutions on trends in voluntary self-disclosure to improve export control compliance.
