Paul Howes to quit KPMG and become CEO of rebranded Sayers Group
KPMG, Deloitte, PwC exit 35 professionals over misconduct
Edmund Tadros
Aug 12, 2025
Three of the big four consulting firms – KPMG, Deloitte and PwC – have exited 35 staff for misconduct, including sexual harassment and data breaches.
The firms began disclosing misconduct complaints, with different reporting methods and varied transparency, after a series of reports in The Australian Financial Reviewdetailed how they handled sexual harassment and other issues.
A landmark 2023 external review of EY’s workplace raised concerns, finding that staff felt overworked, bullied and harassed by partners and senior management. In response to the findings, the firm’s leaders promised to reform its workplace.
In the 2025 financial year, KPMG substantiated 32 complaints, including 19 code-of-conduct breaches, 12 cases of sexual harassment, and one data breach.
The firm, which reported higher profit on lower revenue on Monday, exited 16 staff and issued 16 written warnings for misconduct. KPMG now has almost 9000 staff, down 7 per cent from the previous period.
During the same period, Deloitte substantiated 101 misconduct cases, resulting in 14 exits, 21 staff being counselled and 66 receiving reprimands. Although Deloitte did not detail the types of complaints, its annual report stated that the top three substantiated concerns were disrespectful treatment, policy violations and harassment.
The firm reported lower revenue and profit for 2024-25 on Monday. Deloitte has 11,153 staff, down 7.5 per cent, or 903, compared to the previous year.
PwC, the only one of the four to publish fully audited financial results, exited five staff and gave 16 written warnings in the 2024 calendar year. The firm has about 6500 employees, down from almost 10,000 in mid-2023.
EY is yet to report its 2025 financial year results. The firm does not publicly disclose exits for internal complaints. In the 2024 financial year, there were 14 “formal” outcomes from complaints, two of which involved partners.
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Edmund Tadros leads our coverage of the professional services sector. He is based in our Sydney newsroom. Email Edmund at edmundtadros@afr.com.au
Aug 11, 2025
Former PwC partner Richard Gregg has been deregistered by tax authorities for making false client claims that caused a tax shortfall of more than $11 million and led to fines for those clients of more than $800,000.
The Tax Practitioners Board, which oversees the country’s 80,000 tax agents, said Gregg made “false or misleading statements in applications for the [Research & Development Tax Incentive] for multiple clients”.
Gregg settled a defamation action against PwC for being wrongly linked to the firm’s tax leaks scandal and has not practised as a tax agent since last year. PwC named him in July 2023 as one of eight partners who had left or were in the process of being removed from the firm’s partnership “for professional or governance breaches”.
The board has banned Gregg from re-registering as a tax agent until late 2029. It found he breached laws requiring honesty, integrity, acting in clients’ best interests and providing competent tax services.
“On 27 June 2025, after completing an investigation, the Tax Practitioners Board decided to terminate the tax agent registration of Mr Richard Gregg as he ceased to meet the tax practitioner registration requirement that he be a fit and proper person,” the board wrote in a termination notice on Monday.
The board found that during his time as the lead partner for PwC’s R&D tax incentive group, Gregg made claims for clients “without making proper inquiries of the clients’ circumstances” to increase the revenue booked to his team at the firm.
‘Lack of integrity’
Gregg was also found to be “careless, negligent and incompetent” in his client advice, causing the Australian Taxation Office and the Industry Department, which oversees the R&D incentive, to spend time on applications that “could not be supported by evidence”.
“The TPB considered that Mr Gregg’s conduct demonstrated a lack of integrity and negligence, and that he failed to show any reasonable level of acknowledgement or contrition for his conduct,” the board stated.
“The ATO determined that the clients affected by Mr Gregg’s conduct had a cumulative tax shortfall of over $11 million, and imposed cumulative penalties of over $800,000 across those clients.”
The board also said Gregg had made claims for clients with information that “did not support claims for the RDTI (including because some applications provided the exact same information as that provided in another client’s application)” and “was not supported by satisfactory evidence”.
The board said that he wrongly provided “advice, or causing his staff to provide advice” when “he had no direct knowledge, and did not attempt to obtain knowledge, of the activities being claimed as R&D activities; and ... the Commissioner determined that the activities were not core or supporting activities for the purposes of the RDTI”.
A spokesperson for Gregg said the TPB finding related to “declarations to the ATO that the TPB have acknowledged and accepted that Mr Gregg did not himself make” and that the board had “inexplicably commenced a process against him” in November 2024 despite knowing he had retired from professional practice in February 2024.
“Regardless, the updated status of registration posted by the TPB will have no impact on Mr Gregg’s future as he has moved on from professional practice,” the spokesperson said.
A PwC spokeswoman said the TPB sanction related to “historical matters and conduct” and noted that Gregg had been “exited from the firm”. She said during the past two years the firm had “made changes which have significantly enhanced our governance and culture”.
The changes at the firm included the “appointment of independent non-executives to our Governance Board, the elevation of our risk function and the introduction of an enhanced consequence management framework,” she said. “We will continue our work on these important changes, as we maintain focus on enhancing our culture of sustainable high performance.”
The Australian Financial Review reported in early 2023 that PwC’s former international tax head, Peter Collins, had been deregistered because he shared confidential government briefings with the firm’s clients and partners. The firm then designed schemes to help clients sidestep the new multinational tax laws Collins was helping Treasury to develop.
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