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PwC partner sues to stop firm forcing him out over tax leaks
A veteran PwC Australia tax partner specialising in providing research and development incentive advice has become the first partner named by the firm over its tax leaks scandal to take legal action to stop the firm forcing him out of its partnership.
Richard Gregg, who has been a partner at PwC since 2013, obtained a temporary injunction on Wednesday afternoon that prevents PwC from forcing him to “retire from the partnership of PricewaterhouseCoopers”, according to a court order.
Mr Gregg was one of eight partners named in a PwC statement on July 3 who had “exited or [were] in the process of being removed from the partnership”. He alleges the firm named him publicly in the statement without warning and without giving him a chance to defend the allegations made against him by the firm.
New PwC chief executive Kevin Burrowes is listed in the court order.
The July 3 statement, which also named former CEO Tom Seymour and former chairman Peter van Dongen, noted Mr Gregg had “been given notice of PwC Australia’s findings against him and a process has started under the Partnership Agreement to remove him from the partnership”.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Gregg was granted a temporary injunction in the Supreme Court of NSW that stopped PwC from making him “retire from the partnership of PricewaterhouseCoopers”, according to a court order.
New PwC Australia chief executive Kevin Burrowes, who formally began in the role this week, along with 10 other unspecified defendants, are listed in the court order. Mr Gregg is being represented by defamation lawyer Rebekah Giles, while the firm is being represented by Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s head of class actions Chris Pagent.
There is a detailed process that PwC’s leadership must follow to force a partner out of the partnership. Mr Gregg is expected to argue the firm has not followed this process.
A spokesman for PwC declined to comment because the matter was before the courts. Mr Gregg also declined to comment.
PwC’s tax leaks matter, first revealed by The Australian Financial Review, involved former PwC tax partner Peter Collins sharing confidential government information that was used to advise clients how to sidestep new Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law (MAAL) laws.
The scandal has led to wholesale change in the upper ranks of PwC, multiple inquiries and investigations and the $1 fire sale of its public sector consulting business to private equity investor Allegro Funds.
The firm’s July 3 statement naming Mr Gregg did not specify the allegations being made against him.
Instead, it included a general statement that it had “identified a number of specific examples where professional standards were breached with respect to misuse of confidential information ... Furthermore, the investigation identified a failure of leadership and governance to adequately address the matters, either at the time or whilst the matters were under investigation by the TPB [Tax Practitioners Board] or ATO.”
Mr Gregg has more than 25 years of experience in tax advisory and was a director at Deloitte before joining PwC in 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was promoted to partner in July 2013.
His profile states he “assists companies to maximise the benefits they receive under the R&D tax program, by helping them to identify eligible activities that arise during the course of their business, while appropriately managing the risk attached to their claims”.
The profile states his clients ranged “from large public companies to small businesses” in sectors ranging from “agriculture, information, communications and technology, manufacturing, mining and energy”.
