KPMG facing fine over Rolls-Royce bribery case

KPMG could be hit with the latest in a string of major fines over a decade-old case involving Derby-based manufacturing giant Rolls-Royce.

Sky News says that KPMG is facing a fine of approximately £4.5m from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) over work it carried out for Rolls and for which the Derby firm paid a £670m settlement over bribery charges for in 2017.

The FRC launched an investigation into KPMG soon after Rolls’ agreement with with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was made public.

The FRC’s investigations were centred around the audit of the financial statements of Rolls-Royce Group for the year ended 31 December 2010 and of Rolls-Royce Holdings for the years ended 31 December 2011 to 31 December 2013.

The investigation into Rolls-Royce resulted in a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the company and one of its subsidiaries in respect of bribery and corruption to win business in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Russia, Nigeria, China and Malaysia.

In February 2019, the SFO dropped its investigation.

Rolls-Royce agreed to make payments to the DoJ totalling $169,917,710 and to the MPF totalling $25,579,179. Under the terms of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the SFO, Rolls-Royce will pay £497,252,645 plus interest under a schedule lasting up to five years, plus a payment in respect of the SFO’s costs.

The news comes a week after it was revealed that KPMG was fined £14m for misconduction when carrying out an audit for collapsed construction firm Carillion.

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