Big Four accounting firm PwC has been fined £1.75m by the accounting watchdog over its audit work for BT carried out in the wake of fraud in the telecoms giant’s Italian operations in 2016.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it also fined audit partner Richard Hughes £42,000 over the BT work. Both PwC and Mr Hughes admitted breaches of the rules in relation to their audits of the financial impact disclosed by BT over the Italian fraud affair.
As well as the fines, PwC and Mr Hughes were issued with "severe" reprimands by the FRC. Penalties were reduced by 30% from £2.5m for PwC and £60,000 for Mr Hughes thanks to early admissions of rule breaches.
