KPMG faces tribunal for its work for mattress firm Silentnight November 22, 2018 Audit firm KPMG and one of its partners face a tribunal over work for mattress firm Silentnight, the accountancy watchdog said today. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) today delivered a formal complaint against the firm and restructuring partner David Costley-Wood. The FRC alleged that KPMG and Costley-Wood acted for Silentnight “in circumstances where their professional judgment [...]
International Women’s Day: ‘Empower women to have more confidence in having a voice and stepping up’ March 8, 2022 Samantha Frost CA, Director at Think Consulting and Think Wellbeing, discusses gender bias in the workplace, shifting attitudes towards career breaks, the power of mentoring and the pressure that’s placed on women to act as role models. Why did you decide to become a CA? A lot of us who studied economics at university didn’t [...]
UK unemployment: 730,000 Brits lose their jobs in lockdown August 11, 2020 Around 730,000 people have lost their jobs in the UK since lockdown began in March, official statistics showed today, in the largest quarterly slump in employment since 2009. Since June, a further 114,000 people became unemployed, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) added. The UK unemployment rate stands at 3.9 per cent for the prior [...]
Former Wirecard boss Markus Braun arrested for second time July 22, 2020 The former chief executive of Wirecard has been rearrested as Munich prosecutors accuse him of committing a multiyear fraud. Markus Braun stepped down from the company last month after being accused of misrepresenting the payments company’s accounts and of market manipulation by falsifying income from transactions with so-called third-party acquirers. The Financial Times reported prosecutors [...]
Boohoo takes £775m hit as auditor stands down October 20, 2020 Boohoo saw almost £775m wiped off its market value yesterday after the beleaguered fast fashion retailer said PwC was stepping down as auditor. Boohoo’s announcement that it was running a tender for a new auditor and that PwC would not take part in the process spooked investors, sending shares down 20 per cent to 254p [...]
UK retail sales grow following lockdown easing August 11, 2020 UK retail sales grew in July as the easing of lockdown restrictions released pent-up demand, but high street stores continued to struggle. On a total basis, sales increased 3.2 per cent last month, compared to a jump of 0.5 per cent in July 2019, which was the second consecutive month of growth since the coronavirus [...]
Audit shows Wirecard’s core business ‘has been lossmaking for years’ July 6, 2020 Wirecard’s core business in Europe and America has reportedly been lossmaking for years, raising questions about the economic health of parts of the firm not directly affected by the accounting fraud. The German firm filed for insolvency after an accounting scandal which saw €1.9bn missing from its balance sheet. Former chief executive Markus Braun was [...]
Wirecard business partner reported dead in Philippines amid investigation August 6, 2020 A German businessman responsible for one of Wirecard’s biggest sources of profit has been reported dead in the Philippines amid ongoing investigations into his involvement with the disgraced payments firm’s collapse in June. Filipino authorities are seeking to confirm whether a recently registered death was that of former Wirecard executive Christopher Bauer, one of several [...]
Not as easy as 1,2,3: Seven accounting errors that rocked FTSE firms January 22, 2020 Ted Baker today experienced the dubious honour of joining a list of FTSE firms that have been shaken by accounting errors in the past year. The fashion retailer revealed an accounting error was more than twice as bad as it previously thought, knocking shares down seven per cent. But it is by no means the [...]
EU court rules against Blackrock in VAT exemption case July 2, 2020 Blackrock’s UK arm is not exempt from paying value added tax (VAT) on part of a service from an outside supplier to help manage its funds, an EU court ruled today. The world’s biggest asset manager had argued that between 2010 and 2013 it should not have to pay VAT on all the services given, [...]