[27] These member firms were followed by Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, CIS (Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Georgia), Turkey, Norway, and Saudi Arabia.

This along with the £115 million proceeds from the sale of its pensions business earlier in 2021, which it seems was not distributed to the partners, was intended to prepare the balance sheet for a potential large fine (up to £1 billion) arising out of the Carillion lawsuit.

[51][52] During August, KPMG LLP admitted to criminal wrongdoing and agreed to pay US$456 million in fines, restitution, and penalties as part of an agreement to defer prosecution of the firm, according to the US Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

[76][77] This followed criticism about KPMG's failure to uncover illegal sales practices at Wells Fargo or potential corruption at FIFA, the governing international body of football.

[80] In August, KPMG US paid a $6.2 million fine to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for inadequacies in its audit of the financial statements of oil and gas company, Miller Energy Resources.

[84] "Perhaps locking up 91 KPMG partners over Christmas may spur the firms to find a solution to this problem", said Professor Paul Gillis of Peking University's Guanghua School of Management.

[88] Also during July, the UK accounting watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced an investigation into KPMG’s work for Conviviality, the British drinks supplier that collapsed into administration during April 2018.

[90] During August, Chile's Comision Para El Mercado Financiero(CMF) sanctioned KPMG Auditores Consultores Limitada (KPMG LLP's local affiliate) 3,000 UF (~$114,000), and Joaquín Lira Herreros, its partner, for offences incurred in the audit made to the financial statements of the Aurus Insignia Fondo de Inversión, managed by Aurus Capital S.A. Admnistradora General de Fondos Management (AGF), corresponding to the year 2014.

[99] In June, KPMG resigned from the auditor role of British fashion firm Ted Baker plc after the company admitted accounting errors resulting in overstatement of its inventory by up to £58 million.

[102] During May, members of the Canadian Parliament's House of Commons finance committee re-launched a probe into offshore tax evasion by interviewing Lucia Iacovelli, managing partner at KPMG.

[104] In July, the UK accounting regulator Financial Reporting Council (FRC) criticised KPMG for its "unacceptable" failure to meet required standards in its audits of banks for a third year running.

Its claim is centred on the rights issue and a revolving credit facility it participated in at VBS relying on financial statements audited by KPMG and its former senior partner, Sipho Malaba.

The tribunal found that KPMG had helped private equity group H.I.G Capital drive Silentnight into an insolvency process, so that HIG could acquire the company without its £100m pension scheme.

"It’s alleged in these lawsuits that KPMG, Cassels Brock and Canaccord triggered over $100-million in damages to Money Retailer and its collectors," mentioned Mr. Aziz, President of BlueTree Advisors Inc., a company restructuring advisory agency primarily based in Oakville, Ontario.

[116] A settlement agreement between the UK regulator, the Financial Reporting Council and a KPMG Partner, Stuart Smith, who led the firm’s audit of IT company, Regenersis later renamed as Blancco Technology Group, resulted in a fine of £150,000 after he admitted misleading its inspectors.

[133] Also in April, KPMG’s Canadian affiliate was sued for Canadian $1.4 billion (~US$1.1 billion) by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the Receiver winding down defunct financing firm, Bridging Finance Inc., for negligently failing to detect and report on misstatements in its financial statements before the firm’s collapse in 2021[134] And in April, UK's accounting regulator Financial Reporting Council fined KPMG's UK affiliate £1 million (Approx.

[140] Also in August, the registration authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market imposed a AED110,000 (~US$30,000) penalty on KPMG Lower Gulf for “ineffective systems and controls leading to non-compliance with audit requirements”.

[159] In January 2018, it was announced that KPMG, auditor of collapsed UK construction firm Carillion, would have its role examined by the Financial Reporting Council,[160] (FRC) and it was summoned to give evidence before two House of Commons select committees on 22 February 2018.

[161] On 13 February 2018, the 'Big 4' accountancy firms, including KPMG, were described by MP Frank Field as "feasting on what was soon to become a carcass" after collecting fees of £72m for Carillion work during the years leading up to its collapse.

Yet, had KPMG been prepared to challenge management, the warning signs were there in highly questionable assumptions about construction contract revenue and the intangible asset of goodwill accumulated in historic acquisitions.

[191] In October 2023, the Financial Reporting Council fined KPMG UK £21 million, saying it had failed to follow "the most basic and fundamental audit concepts" and an "unusually large number of breaches" had been found.

[199] In July 2017, after controversial documents were leaked by the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism, former chief executive of KPMG South Africa and the former partner that was responsible for audits related to the Gupta family, Moses Kgosana, withdrew from becoming the chairman of Alexander Forbes, a financial services firm.

[200][201] In 2015, KPMG issued a controversial report that implicated former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in the creation of an illegal intelligence gathering unit of the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

[204] After an internal investigation that found work done for the Gupta family fell "considerably short" of the firm's standards and amid rising political and public backlash, KPMG's senior leadership in South Africa, including its chairman Ahmed Jaffer, CEO Trevor Hoole, COO Steven Louw, and five partners, resigned in September 2017.

[205][206] Save South Africa, a civil-society group, accused KPMG and UK PR firm Bell Pottinger of playing a "central role in facilitating state capture".

"[213] Controversies around KPMG Lower Gulf first emerged in July 2022, when staff at the UAE division accused the multinational firm of neglecting multiple complaints filed against the Emirati CEO Nader Haffar.

In an email sent to KPMG International’s top executives, ten capital partners at the firm’s UAE branch asked them to address the "massive crisis" in the local company.

[216] In October 2022, the Financial Times published a report in which dozens of employees described that unethical employment practices at KPMG Saudi Arabia were commonplace and had left expatriate staff fearing for their personal safety and struggling with their mental health.

The FT has viewed copies of three whistleblowing reports sent to KPMG International since 2018, alleging issues in Saudi Arabia practice, including wrongful terminations, failure to pay staff and concerns about personal safety in the region.

[221] The sponsorship lasted until 22 February 2022, when the two parties mutually split following comments in which Mickelson called Saudi Arabia "scary" but would overlook the country's human rights controversies in the best interest of the PGA Tour.