A member had appealed against the finding, order, and costs of a disciplinary tribunal:
- reprimanded, fined £3,000 and required to pay costs following a series of failures to make disclosures related to share capital in abbreviated accounts for three companies;
- approving incorrectly prepared accounts for two companies over multiple years;
- approving incorrectly prepared share capital information on the Companies House annual return of one company; and
- providing incorrect information to the Official receiver.
The appeal was dismissed and the member was required to pay the costs of the appeal.
In one tribunal a member was reprimanded, fined £5,000 and required to pay costs, for compliance failures in relation to the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (information on the payer) Regulations 2017 arising from failures in customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring of business relationships.
In another tribunal a member was severely reprimanded, fined £5,000 and required to pay costs for failing to provide to ICAEW the information, explanations and documents requested by a letter issued in accordance with Disciplinary Bye-law 13.1, contrary to Disciplinary Bye-law 13.2. The member was also ordered to provide the information requested in that letter.
The third tribunal considered complaints that a member of both the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) and ICAEW had the following findings of fact against them by HKICPA regarding a failure to observe, maintain or otherwise apply professional standards issued by HKICPA for the audits of a client for two years. Those failures related to failing to properly perform the audit regarding:
- the classification and measurement of contingent consideration in relation to the acquisition of another company;
- a prior year adjustment made in the financial statements to reclassify the Contingent Consideration arising from the acquisition from equity to financial liability;
- the impairment assessment on goodwill and intangible assets arising from the acquisition;
- the impairment assessment on goodwill arising from another acquisition; and
- the goodwill and intangibles arising from a further acquisition
thus failing to comply with multiple Hong Kong Standards on Auditing
The member was also found by HKICPA to have failed to comply with multiple Hong Kong Standards on Auditing as they:
- failed to comply with the fundamental principle of Professional Competence and Due Care of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (COE); and
- failed to properly prepare any or any adequate audit documentation in relation to the impairment assessments on goodwill and intangible asserts arising from the acquisitions.
The member was severely reprimanded and required to pay costs.
The Investigation Committee made the following orders by consent.
- A licensed Insolvency practitioner was severely reprimanded and fined £5,000 because as Nominee in a proposed Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) for an individual they had breached the Statement of Insolvency Practice 3.1 and/or the Fundamental Principle of Professional Competence and Due Care when failing to consider the affordability of the same following a change in that individual’s Circumstances.
Another insolvency practitioner was severely reprimanded and required to pay costs following a finding of fact by the Insolvency Practitioners Association that in their role as Nominee in the Individual Voluntary Arrangement of an individual, they had breached the Statement of Insolvency Practice 3.1 by failing to assess whether an IVA was appropriate and viable in the circumstances.
A member was reprimanded and required to pay costs for failing to ensure that their practice was supervised by an appropriate anti-money laundering supervisory authority, contrary to Regulation 8, and Parts 1-6 and 8-11 of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017.