4 New Square Chambers’ Seohyung Kim acted on behalf of a junior audit professional of a Big Four firm.
The audit professional had admitted to formal allegations that he had acted dishonestly and without integrity. The usual sanction for allegations concerning dishonesty and/or failure to act with integrity is exclusion (i.e. a permanent ban from the profession).
Seohyung successfully represented the audit professional at the Sanctions Hearing. The Tribunal was persuaded that the act of dishonesty was an isolated incident and out of character. The Tribunal did not order the audit professional to be excluded from the profession and imposed instead a sanction of Severe Reprimand with a financial penalty, which was discounted to reflect the audit professional’s early admission.