One would think that professionals hold themselves to a higher standard, and would not conspire to take advantage of leaks of information from someone who shouldn’t be leaking it.
Au contraire, mes amis.
“Former KPMG Executives Charged,” The Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2018 B1. KPMG execs arranged to get a heads up on which KPMG audits were going to be reviewed by the PCAOB. After things went south and the investigation started, people started deleting emails and texts. Same song, different verse.
So, working with a federal government agency to get confidential government information. Consequence: criminal indictments of KPMG partners and civil suits. They were also fired. KPMG cooperated “fully” in the investigation. The leakers at the government were angling for jobs at KPMG.
Lessons:
- Auditors commit crimes, too
- Confidential government information belongs to the government
- Conspiring with government employees to get that information is a crime
- Your employer has a lot of incentives to cut you loose if you’ve committed a crime in the course of your business
- It’s hard to get a job as an auditor after a criminal conviction
- Deleting emails and texts after an investigation started is Bad. See also 18 USC §1519
- If partners in your firm are doing this, what else is going on?
- No one at the government has been charged
infogovnuggets 