The Examiner
There is a type of company whose entire business model is based on independence. Not independence like a nation, or a contractor, or a freelance journalist who can technically work in their pajamas. Independence in the specific, contractual, legally-loaded sense that when Company A asks them to look at Company B's books and certify that Company B is not lying, Company A can trust that they have never had lunch with Company B. This trust is the product. The independence is the invoice.
KPMG Australia is one of these companies.
I am not making this up: in 2026, while KPMG was bidding for the external audit contract of a real estate investment company called Dexus, a KPMG partner named Jeff O'Sullivan allegedly left his laptop open. The laptop was displaying Dexus's confidential internal audit data, which KPMG had obtained because it was also doing Dexus's internal audit. This is a conflict of interest. A person who did not work in accounting would call it "having the answers before the test." A KPMG partner would call it "an alleged inadvertent access incident."
Someone at KPMG noticed and raised this concern internally. This person is called a whistleblower, which is a word that means "someone who will subsequently have a difficult time at work." KPMG's response to the whistleblower is currently under investigation. The word "mistreated" has appeared in reporting. KPMG has not confirmed this characterization.
The sequence of events that followed:
- April 2026: ASIC, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, launched a formal investigation. ASIC is the regulator that oversees public companies, financial services, and auditors. It is, in other words, the body that checks the people who check companies. (There is presumably a body that checks ASIC. No one has left a laptop open there yet, to public knowledge.)
- May 2026: CEO Andrew Yates resigned, citing "ultimate executive responsibility."
- June 2026: Chair Martin Sheppard resigned.
- July 21, 2026: New CEO John Sams was appointed.
At the time of writing, KPMG Australia continues to provide audit and assurance services. Australia's Treasury is discussing whether to require the Big Four accounting firms — KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, and EY — to separate their audit divisions from their consulting divisions, on the theory that a firm making large consulting fees from a client has a financial incentive to approve that client's books. This discussion is described in the press as "emerging." Audit firms have opposed this idea for years. PwC Australia, it should be noted, had its own scandal in 2023, when a partner was found to have shared confidential government tax policy information with colleagues to help clients plan around it. PwC's response at the time was to apologize and restructure.
The new KPMG CEO has pledged to restore trust.
The laptop is presumably closed now.