A recent BBC Panorama investigation alleged that the Dubai office of EY, a global giant in the accountancy world, failed to report suspicious activity at one of the world’s largest gold refineries and then altered a compliance report.

In the absence of an intimate knowledge of the facts, and in particular of the explanations open to EY, it would be unwise to be too critical, too soon. However, using the assumption that the facts are entirely as reported it is possible to reaffirm certain perennial truths.