First ICAEW public tribunal defendant decides against appeal

Ehsan Malik, who lost in the ICAEW's first public tribunal, will not appeal the decision

Written by Kevin Reed

Accountancy Age, 19 Feb 2008

The first ICAEW member to face a public disciplinary tribunal has not appealed against his guilty verdict.

Ehsan Malik told Accountancy Age that after a long battle against the ICAEW, during which time he had offered to quit the institute to avoid a tribunal, he would not appeal.

'There's no point for me. I'd wanted to resign years ago,' Malik said.

The ICAEW has yet to hold a public appeal hearing since it moved to public tribunal processes at the start of the year.

Malik, of Ehsan Malik & Co, was found guilty of failing to carry out hot file reviews of his audit work.

Malik was fined £5,000 and will have to pay costs of £9,000 and the panel recommended he be excluded from ICAEW membership for five years.

Hot file reviews involve other firms coming in to look over audits.

Malik had argued that he had not signed off the audits in question, but that other firms had and his signature had been faked.

The ICAEW investigating committee's counsel asked Malik why he had not informed the institute, or Companies House, of the faked signature issues, a move that Malik said would have been a 'waste of time'.