A barrister for KPMG has denied the Big Four audit firm deliberately put forward a “dishonest defence” to misconduct claims over its work on the sale of mattress company Silentnight to private equity firm HIG in 2011.
A draft report from the Financial Reporting Council’s disciplinary tribunal found KPMG and its former partner David Costley-Wood had advised both Silentnight and HIG despite an “obvious” conflict of interest between the two businesses between August 2010 and January 2011, a tribunal heard on 21 June.