Source : THE AGE NEWS
Another two senior KPMG executives associated with the whistleblower scandal have resigned from the firm as it prepares for another round of public hearings on the matter this Friday.
KPMG said its general counsel Louise Capon has decided to leave KPMG after 10 years with the firm. It will also start the process to find a long-term successor for HR boss Dorothy Hisgrove.
KPMG’s new chief executive John Sams made the announcement to partners on Tuesday morning.
“I have asked Louise to remain with us for a period to ensure the smooth handover of the important work she is doing on multiple fronts and support the orderly transition of her responsibilities. Louise will step down from the [executive committee] immediately,” he said.
Sams also noted that: “Dorothy has always planned to retire from the partnership in early 2027. Dorothy is supporting us with this process and will remain in her role until we appoint a successor.”
The two executives are set to depart KPMG as the firm grapples with the fallout from a whistleblower’s claims that it illicitly accessed sensitive board papers from its clients in a bid to win new business. Key claims made by the whistleblower have been substantiated, and a parliamentary committee is investigating how KPMG responded to the explosive claims.
Capon and Hisgrove were questioned at the previous public hearing into the scandal, held in June.
In a response to questions from the parliamentary committee, KPMG confirmed last month that the general counsel’s office, and HR department, provided advice ahead of the firm covertly searching the whistleblower’s laptop in November 2024.
“While the searches were undertaken in accordance with KPMG’s policies and procedures, we regret
any distress this process may have caused the whistleblower. KPMG will consider its approach to
these matters as part of the lessons learned review being conducted by Andrews Group and Dennis
Gentilin,” KPMG said in the response.
KPMG partners are voting on Wednesday on whether to retain chairman-elect Michael Ebeid on a permanent basis.
A vote against the resolution would mean the embattled firm will also have to find a new chairman.
Capon and Hisgrove are the latest senior executives to leave KPMG, following the earlier departures of former chief executive Andrew Yates, former chair Martin Sheppard, and the former head of audit Julian McPherson,
On Monday, the parliamentary joint committee (PJC) investigating the whistleblower scandal released documents that included Ebeid issuing a grovelling apology for dismissing the whistleblower’s allegations after Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill made them public in March.
In March, Ebeid had emailed his colleagues on the KPMG board accusing O’Neill of airing “completely false” allegations when she read out the whistleblower’s claims that top staff at the firm had misused confidential client information. Those allegations have since been substantiated.
And in a bigger issue for the consultancy, legal documents released by parliament on Monday showed that two major law firms engaged to review the whistleblower’s claims early in the saga were prevented from taking basic steps, such as interviewing people involved or checking staff emails.
The legal documents were the reports from two law firms, Allens and Ashurst, and relate to their work on the whistleblower complaints. KPMG initially refused to make the documents public, but said the complaints were unsubstantiated.
A fresh investigation by Allens has led to a purge of KPMG’s most senior people.
“The Ashurst and Allens processes were central to the claim that KPMG had undertaken comprehensive internal and external investigations prior to the speech given by Senator Deborah O’Neill on 24 March 2026,” the committee – chaired by O’Neill – said in a statement on Monday.
It said the committee had found there was a “compelling public interest” in examining the results of the law firms’ investigations at its next hearing, allowing it to publish the previously legally privileged documents.
One document released by the committee was an Ashurst report from February last year. At the committee’s public hearing last month, the law firm described its work for KPMG as legal advice.
This report cleared KPMG personnel of any wrongdoing “based on the material reviewed”, but said its review was based entirely on file notes provided by KPMG on its discussions with the whistleblower, and file notes on KPMG’s discussions with its own staff who were the subject of the allegations.
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Colin Kruger is a senior business reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
