In the last year, the FRC opened 16 investigations into auditors, accountants and actuaries while it continued to deal with a backlog of 46 cases, which are currently at different phases of investigation. Over the course of the year six cases were resolved with a record fine of £15m issued to Big Four auditor Deloitte over the Autonomy audit.

The misconduct arose from Deloitte’s audit and review work during 2009 and 2010 relating to the accounting and disclosure of Autonomy’s sales of hardware, and sales of software licences to value added resellers. Deloitte and both partners failed to exercise adequate professional scepticism and failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence. Deloitte should not have issued unqualified audit opinions in those years based on the audit evidence obtained, the FRC investigation found.

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