ICAEW to consider Thompson complaint
The English ICA is looking into a complaint it received concerning the accounts of various companies owned by one of the UK's richest families.
According to a spokesperson for the ICAEW, a complaint was received from Roger Abraham, a former business partner of the father-and-son team David and Richard Thompson alleging 80 technical deficiencies. The complaint, according to the institute, is ‘being dealt with in accordance with the procedures set out in the ICAEW’s disciplinary bye-laws’.
The ICAEW declined to comment further on the matter beyond the comments attributed to the institute in a Sunday Times article from 7 January.
The paper claimed the ICAEW was investigating the work of Jayson Newman, the firm responsible for auditing most of the private companies controlled by the Thompsons, who oversee one of Britain’s biggest family empires.
According to the Sunday Times: ‘The ICAEW investigation focuses on the level of disclosure in the accounts covering items ranging from transactions with directors and related parties and inter-company loans through to post-balance sheet events and directors’ interests in the shares.’
The Thompsons own companies such as film production company Civilian Content and department store company Hoopers.
Jayson Newman has refuted the allegations levelled against it, claiming Abraham had a long history of litigation with companies controlled by the Thompson family.