PwC Australia names scores of government tax plan leakers. On Monday, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia listed at least 67 current and former personnel involved in the leak of classified government tax plans in an unpublished letter to MPs ahead of parliamentary hearings later this week.
PwC, one of the “big four” audit and advisory firms, is trying to contain the fallout from a scandal in Australia, where a former partner who was consulting with the federal government on new tax laws targeting corporate tax avoidance shared confidential drafts with colleagues to drum up business worldwide.
In May, 144 partially redacted emails revealed hundreds of personnel were working with PwC businesses in the US, UK, Singapore, and the Netherlands to help multinational companies avoid a new Australian tax rule.
PwC Australia presented a list of four former partners implicated in the leak to a senate inquiry, including the scandal’s main partner.
The “big four” business also identified 63 current and former partners who received at least one email with confidential information on Australia’s 2016 Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law.
Staff may not have known about the confidentiality breach.
The Australian Financial Review disclosed the identities in the senate committee submission, which PwC confirmed to Reuters.
Last week, acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins publicly apologized for the affair and ordered nine partners to take leave, awaiting the confidential breach probe. The submission mentioned several of those partners.
Last week, Australia’s largest pension fund banned future work with the firm, deepening the repercussions and boosting the danger that private-sector clients could follow a growing list of government bodies examining or suspending their engagement.
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