KPMG has contacted the man who blew the whistle on its audit leaks scandal to apologise, ahead of an inquiry into its failures today.
The whistleblower was a KPMG employee who sent an email raising alarm in May 2024, in which he claims he was covered by Australia’s legal protections.
In a letter published by the inquiry committee, Mike Ebeid, KPMG’s new chair, offers a series of mea culpas.
Ebeid told the whistleblower that KPMG still believed not think his email was protected by Australia’s complex whistleblower laws. Ebeid said the firm had still treated the issue as if it were being raised as an official whistleblower issue and would not challenge the matter if a legal case was brought against it.
Ebeid has also admitted the firm did not ask its lawyers to investigate “every aspect” of the whistleblower’s allegations, meaning it did not look into some of the ethical issues now being examined.
He said KPMG had in April 2026 wrongly claimed it had “not substantiated” allegations of internal leaks because investigations by December 2025 had found confidential information was being shared.
