KPMG secretly and repeatedly accessed a whistleblower’s work computer to extract documents detailing their allegations of data misuse, then shared the material with senior partners and the firm’s former chief executive, the Australian Financial Review has reported. The global accounting firm had the legal right to access an employee’s work laptop.
What makes it striking is the timing: it did so while the whistleblower was in a sensitive standoff with KPMG over their legal protections.
The covert retrieval, reportedly carried out by IT staff on instructions from the office of the firm’s general counsel over roughly two years, also sits awkwardly against management’s claim that it lacked enough detail to investigate.
“There seems to be a culture of abuse of legal professional privilege to cover up sins in the large partnerships,” said Senator Deborah O’Neill, who aired the allegations in parliament. “The cover-up over the cover-up over the cover-up is just killing them.”
The scandal underneath
