Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Corporate governanceFinancial servicesEthicsLatest NewsDiscipline and grievances

EY drops appeal against whistleblower judgment

by Adam McCulloch 30 Mar 2021
by Adam McCulloch 30 Mar 2021 EY office near London Bridge.
Photo: Shutterstock
EY office near London Bridge.
Photo: Shutterstock

Global accounting and consultancy firm EY has dropped its appeal against a judgment ordering it to pay $10.8m to a whistleblower who raised money laundering concerns.

In April 2020 the Hight Court ruled in favour of Amjad Rihan after he’d been forced out of EY having made allegations over the company’s activities in connection with organised crime laundering drug money from the UK via Dubai’s gold markets.

Rihan alleged that EY had helped to cover up a crime – the export to Dubai of gold bars that had been disguised as silver to avoid export limits on gold.

He welcomed EY’s decision to drop its appeal but said the company’s leadership should accept personal responsibility for its breaches of professional ethics.

“They need to see heads rolling at EY. It’s not satisfactory, when all this has happened, that everyone just stays in place,” he told the BBC.

Whistleblowing

‘Office of the Whistleblower’ needed to tackle retaliation

Whistleblowing protections to be reviewed amid dismissal claims

Covid-19 whistleblowers ignored and dismissed by employers

What is a public interest disclosure?

Last April, High Court judge Timothy Kerr ruled that EY had helped conceal the results of Rihan’s audit into the business practices of EY client Kaloti. The firm, Rihan alleged, had paid billions of dollars in cash for gold without adequately checking its origin, and bought gold bars from Morocco coated in silver to avoid export restrictions. Precious metals had also been obtained from Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iran without due diligence.

Kerr’s 133-page ruling stated: “The EY organisation was supposed to have a written whistleblowing policy, though I have no evidence that it had one.”

Mark Otty, then EY managing partner for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (and now EY’s global emerging markets deputy chair), to whom Rihan had reported his concerns, was singled out by the April judgment. He sat on EY’s global executive and also gave evidence at the trial.

“He struck me as uninterested in questions of professional ethics. Although he is still part of the EY organisation, and although he expressed confidence soon after the claimant’s later resignation that EY would sue the claimant, the laptop he was using at the time was not preserved,” the judgment stated.

After dropping its appeal, EY issued a statement that read: “We remain disappointed by the trial judge’s decision and by the subsequent refusal of leave to appeal the underlying findings of fact, with which we firmly disagree.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“With such an impediment, we concluded that our appeal on the law, even if successful, no longer merited the time and resources involved.”

HR opportunities in Accountancy, Banking, Finance and Insurance on Personnel Today

Browse more HR opportunities in Accountancy, Banking, Finance and Insurance

Adam McCulloch

Adam McCulloch first worked for Personnel Today magazine in the early 1990s as a sub editor. He rejoined Personnel Today as a writer in 2017, covering all aspects of HR but with a special interest in diversity, social mobility and industrial relations. He has ventured beyond the HR realm to work as a freelance writer and production editor in sectors including travel (The Guardian), aviation (Flight International), agriculture (Farmers' Weekly), music (Jazzwise), theatre (The Stage) and social work (Community Care). He is also the author of KentWalksNearLondon. Adam first became interested in industrial relations after witnessing an exchange between Arthur Scargill and National Coal Board chairman Ian McGregor in 1984, while working as a temp in facilities at the NCB, carrying extra chairs into a conference room!

previous post
Can you afford to make staff redundant?
next post
Goldman Sachs managers sent junior employees food hampers

You may also like

NHS worker awarded £29k after Darth Vader comparison

8 May 2025

Whistleblowing protections do not extend to external job...

4 Apr 2025

Whistleblowing up as companies embrace ‘speak up’ culture

2 Apr 2025

Police sergeant’s ‘scattergun’ allegations dismissed by tribunal

17 Mar 2025

Police widen Countess of Chester manslaughter investigation to...

14 Mar 2025

New employment rights top priority for HR teams

10 Mar 2025

Court hears case on whistleblowing protections for external...

19 Feb 2025

Fall of Kabul whistleblower wins unfair dismissal case

19 Feb 2025

Countess of Chester NHS chair resigns after damning...

17 Feb 2025

Whistleblowing: Are there lessons to learn from the...

27 Dec 2024

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+