Four senior KPMG partners in Northern Ireland have been arrested in connection with a tax investigation.
The investigation focuses on their personal tax affairs and how they accounted for losses made by an investment vehicle they set up 4 years ago.
The four men arrested on Wednesday were Jon D’Arcy, the head of audit and transactions for KPMG in the North, Eamonn Donaghy, who heads the Belfast tax practice, Paul Hollway, head of corporate finance and Arthur O’Brien, an audit and advisory partner. Mr Donaghy is notably also a leading figure in the campaign to lower the rate of corporation tax in the the North.
It is believed that the four men set up a private investment company, JEAP, which invested primarily in property from 2008 to 2010 and racked up significant losses. Arrests and questioning in such cases are unusual and Wednesday’s events came as a surprise to the individuals involved.
KPMG have agreed to cooperate with the investigatory process and released this statement:
“We can confirm that representatives of HM Revenue and Customs have advised us that they are conducting an investigation and visited our Belfast office yesterday. We are cooperating with that investigation. It is important to emphasise that we do not have any indication that this investigation relates to the business of KPMG or the business of our clients. Pending further information and enquiry, we can confirm that four partners in our Belfast office are on administrative leave. As the matter is on-going, KPMG is not in a position to make any further comment at this stage. “