Pricewaterhouse Coopers
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PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international
professional services Professional services are occupations in the service sector requiring special training in the arts or sciences. Some professional services, such as architects, accountants, engineers, doctors, and lawyers require the practitioner to hold profe ...
brand of firms, operating as
partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...
s under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest
professional services network Professional services networks are business networks of independent firms who come together to cost-effectively provide professional services to clients through an organized framework. They are principally found in law and accounting. They may ...
in the world and is considered one of the
Big Four accounting firms The Big Four are the four largest professional services networks in the world, the global accounting networks Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The four are often grouped because they are comparable in size re ...
, along with
Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...
, EY and
KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...
. PwC firms are in 157 countries, across 742 locations, with 284,000 people. As of 2019, 26% of the workforce was based in the
Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...
, 26% in
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
, 32% in
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
and 5% in
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
and
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. The company's global revenues were $42.4 billion in FY 2019, of which $17.4 billion was generated by its Assurance practice, $10.7 billion by its Tax and Legal practice and $14.4 billion by its Advisory practice. The firm in its recent actual form was created in 1998 by a merger between two accounting firms: Coopers & Lybrand, and Price Waterhouse. Both firms had histories dating back to the 19th century. The
trading name A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...
was shortened to PwC (stylized p''w''c) in September 2010 as part of a rebranding effort. PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, based in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, England, is a co-ordinating entity for the global network of firms. It manages the global brand, and develops policies and initiatives, to create a common and coordinated approach in areas such as risk, quality, and strategy. It does not provide services to clients.


History

The firm was created in September 1998 when Coopers & Lybrand merged with Price Waterhouse.


Coopers & Lybrand

In 1854,
William Cooper William Cooper may refer to: Business *William Cooper (accountant) (1826–1871), founder of Cooper Brothers * William Cooper (businessman) (1761–1840), Canadian businessman *William Cooper (co-operator) (1822–1868), English co-operator * Will ...
founded an accountancy practice in London, England. It became Cooper Brothers seven years later when his three brothers joined. In 1898, Robert H. Montgomery, William M. Lybrand, Adam A. Ross Jr. and his brother T. Edward Ross formed Lybrand, Ross Brothers and Montgomery in the United States. In 1957, Cooper Brothers, along with Lybrand, Ross Bros & Montgomery and a Canadian firm (McDonald, Currie and Co.), agreed to adopt the name Coopers & Lybrand in international practice. In 1973, the three member firms in the UK, US and Canada changed their names to Coopers & Lybrand. Then in 1980, Coopers & Lybrand expanded its expertise in
insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...
substantially by acquiring Cork Gully, a leading firm in that field in the UK. In 1990, in certain countries, including the UK, Coopers & Lybrand merged with Deloitte, Haskins & Sells to become Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte; in 1992 they reverted to Coopers & Lybrand.


Price Waterhouse

In 1849, Samuel Lowell Price, an accountant, founded an accountancy practice in London, England. In 1865, Price went into partnership with
William Hopkins Holyland William Hopkins Holyland (1807-1882) was an English accountant. He is best known for having co-founded, with Samuel Lowell Price and Edwin Waterhouse, the accountancy practice of ''Price Waterhouse'' that now forms part of PricewaterhouseCoope ...
and
Edwin Waterhouse Edwin Waterhouse (4 June 1841 – 17 September 1917) was an English accountant. He is best known for having co-founded, with Samuel Lowell Price and William Hopkins Holyland, the accountancy practice of ''Price Waterhouse'' that now forms part o ...
. Holyland left shortly afterwards to work alone in accountancy and the firm was known from 1874 as Price, Waterhouse & Co. The original partnership agreement, signed by Price, Holyland, and Waterhouse could be found in
Southwark Towers Southwark Towers was a high rise building at 32 London Bridge Street, designed by TP Bennett architects, overlooking London Bridge station, in Southwark, London. When it was demolished in 2008 to make way for The Shard, it was jointly the talles ...
. By the late 19th century, Price Waterhouse had gained recognition as an accounting firm. As a result of growing trade between the United Kingdom and the United States, they opened an office in New York in 1890, and the American firm expanded. The original British firm opened an office in
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
in 1904, and then elsewhere in the United Kingdom and worldwide, each time establishing a separate partnership in each country: the worldwide practice of Price Waterhouse was, therefore, a federation of collaborating firms that had grown organically, rather than the result of an international merger. In a further effort to take advantage of
economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...
, PW and
Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...
discussed a merger in 1989 but the negotiations failed, mainly because of conflicts of interest such as Andersen's strong commercial links with IBM and PW's audit of IBM, as well as the two firms' radically different cultures. It was said by those involved with the failed merger that at the end of the discussion, the partners at the table realized they had different views of business, and the potential merger was scrapped.


1998 to present

In 1998, Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merged to form PricewaterhouseCoopers (written with a lowercase "w" and a
camel case Camel case (sometimes stylized as camelCase or CamelCase, also known as camel caps or more formally as medial capitals) is the practice of writing phrases without spaces or punctuation. The format indicates the separation of words with a single ...
"C"). After the merger, the firm had a large professional
consulting A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...
branch, as did other major accountancy firms, generating much of its fees. The major cause for growth in the 1990s was the implementation of complex integrated
enterprise resource planning Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of Business management tools, business management ...
(ERP) systems for multi-national companies. PwC came under increasing pressure to avoid conflicts of interest by not providing some consulting services, particularly financial systems design and implementation, to its audit clients. Since it audited a large proportion of the world's largest companies, this was beginning to limit its consulting market. These conflicts increased as additional services including outsourcing of IT and back-office operations were developed. For these reasons, in 2000,
Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...
was the first of the Big Four to sell its consulting services, to
Capgemini Capgemini SE is a multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and data processing company. The comp ...
. The fallout from the
Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. ...
,
Worldcom MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunic ...
and other financial auditing scandals led to the passage of the
Sarbanes–Oxley Act The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that mandates certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations. The act, (), also known as the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protecti ...
(2002), severely limiting interaction between management consulting and auditing (assurance) services. PwC Consulting began to conduct business under its own name rather than as the MCS division of PricewaterhouseCoopers. PwC, therefore, planned to capitalize on MCS's rapid growth through its sale to Hewlett Packard (for a reported $17 billion) but negotiations broke down in 2000. In 2000, PwC acquired Canada's largest
SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...
consulting partner, Omnilogic Systems. In March 2002, Arthur Andersen, LLP affiliates in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
completed talks to join PricewaterhouseCoopers, China. PwC made a statement in May 2002, that its consulting activities would be spun off as an independent entity and hired an outside CEO to run the global firm. An outside
consultancy A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...
,
Wolff Olins Wolff Olins is a British advertising agency and corporate identity consultancy. It was started in 1965 and has offices in London, New York City and San Francisco. It now employs some 150 designers, strategists, technologists, programme managers ...
, was hired to create a brand image for the new entity, called "Monday". The firm's CEO, Greg Brenneman described the unusual name as "a real word, concise, recognizable, global and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results." These plans were soon revised, however. In October 2002, PwC sold the entire consultancy business to IBM for approximately $3.5 billion in cash and stock. PwC's consultancy business was absorbed into IBM Global Business Services, increasing the size and capabilities of IBM's growing consulting practice. PwC began rebuilding its consulting practice with acquisitions such as Paragon Consulting Group and the commercial services business of
BearingPoint BearingPoint (parent company: BearingPoint Europe Holdings B.V.) is an independent multinational management and technology consulting firm with 41 offices across 23 countries and around 4,300 employees. In 2021, the firm delivered 1,298 projects ...
in 2009. The firm continued this process by acquiring
Diamond Management & Technology Consultants Diamond Management & Technology Consultants (casually referred to as Diamond) was an independent management consulting firm founded in 1994, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with satellite offices in Hartford, Connecticut, New York City, Washing ...
in November 2010, and
PRTM PRTM is a management consulting subsidiary of PwC. The firm's business centers on the areas of operational strategy, supply chain innovation, product innovation, and customer experience innovation. PRTM works in these industry sectors: aut ...
in August 2011. In 2012, the firm acquired Logan Tod & Co, a digital analytics and optimisation consultancy, and Ant's Eye View, a social media strategy development and consulting firm to build upon PwC's growing Management Consulting customer impact and customer engagement capabilities. On 30 October 2013, the firm announced that it would acquire
Booz & Company Strategy& is the strategy consulting business unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the Big Four professional service firms. Strategy& is a global strategy consulting firm with a network of 75+ offices with 3000+ consultants around the wo ...
, including the company's name and its 300 partners, after a December vote by Booz & Company partners authorized the deal. On 3 April 2014, Booz & Company combined with PwC to form Strategy&. On 4 November 2013, the firm acquired BGT Partners, a 17-year-old digital consultancy. In October 2016, PwC and InvestCloud, LLC, the world's largest Digital App Platform announced that they entered into a non-exclusive joint business relationship, designed to accelerate adoption and implementation of the InvestCloud Digital App Platform. PwC will be a preferred implementation and strategic partner of InvestCloud focused on enterprise delivery and innovative development of new financial app capabilities. In November 2016, PwC acquired technology/consulting firm NSI DMCC,
Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...
's largest implementation partner in the Middle East. In January 2017, PwC announced a five-year agreement with GE to provide managed tax services to GE on a global basis, transferring more than 600 of GE's in-house global tax team to PwC. In addition, PwC would acquire GE's tax technologies and provide managed services not only to GE but also to other PwC clients as well. In November 2017, PwC accepted
bitcoin Bitcoin ( abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distr ...
as payment for advisory services, the first time the company, or any of the Big Four accounting firms, accepted virtual currency as payment.
Veritas Capital Veritas Capital is a New York-based private-equity firm founded in 1992 that invests in companies providing critical products and services, primarily technology-enabled products and services, to government and commercial customers worldwide. The ...
acquired PwC's US public sector business in 2018, and branded the new company as Guidehouse. In February 2020, PwC announced a new collaboration with technology firm ThoughtRiver to launch AI-driven LawTech products aimed at standardizing PwC's service of UK law clients. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has utilized the services of PwC to tally the votes for the Academy Awards since 1935. In addition, the company oversees AMPAS elections, prepares its financial documents, and is responsible for the group's tax filings.


Operations

PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity due to local legislative requirements. Much like other professional services firms, each member firm is financially and legally independent. PwC is co-ordinated by a
private company limited by guarantee In British, Australian, Bermudian, Hong Kong and Irish company law (and previously New Zealand), a company limited by guarantee (CLG) is a type of corporation used primarily (but not exclusively) for non-profit organisations that require legal pe ...
under
English law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. Principal elements of English law Although the common law has, historically, be ...
, called PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited. In addition, PwC is registered as a multidisciplinary entity which also provides legal services. PwC's operations are global, with
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
accounting for 36% of the total, and the
Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...
44%, as of 2016. PwC's largest growth in FY18 was in
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
where revenues were up 15%, followed by 12% revenue growth from the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
and
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
.


Service lines

PwC is organized into the following three service lines (the 2017 revenue shares are listed in parentheses): * Assurance (41%) – Assurance services are those typically associated with
financial audit A financial audit is conducted to provide an opinion whether "financial statements" (the information is verified to the extent of reasonable assurance granted) are stated in accordance with specified criteria. Normally, the criteria are internat ...
s * Advisory (33%) – Advisory services offered by PwC include two actuarial consultancy departments; Actuarial and Insurance Management Solutions (AIMS) and a sub branch of " Human Resource Services" (HRS). Actuarial covers mainly 5 areas: pensions, life insurance,
non-life insurance General insurance or non-life insurance policy, including automobile and homeowners policies, provide payments depending on the loss from a particular financial event. General insurance is typically defined as any insurance that is not determine ...
, health, and
investment Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
s. AIMS deals with life and non-life insurance and investments, while HRS deals mainly with pensions and
group health Group Health Cooperative, (formerly known as Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound), later more commonly known as Group Health, was a Seattle, Washington based nonprofit healthcare organization. Business model Established in , Group Health prov ...
. PwC has also expanded into digital media and advertising. *
Tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
(25%) – International tax planning


Data analysis

Due to its size, PwC is able to contribute
data analysis Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, enco ...
to a wide range of areas. * Calculation of the drone market size: PwC published a 2016 report stating that the world drone market would reach close to $127 billion by 2020, with
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
at the forefront of
legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...
for the commercial use of
unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s. * PwC coined the term E7 to describe the seven emerging economies which the company is predicting will take over today's G7 nations by 2050. Those seven emerging nations are
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
,
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
and
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. * PwC assesses a country's
risk premium A risk premium is a measure of excess return that is required by an individual to compensate being subjected to an increased level of risk. It is used widely in finance and economics, the general definition being the expected risky return less t ...
, an important factor in analyzing the valuation of an entity. * The company analyzes pay parity, the comparative salaries for men versus women. In early 2017, PwC found in its Women in Work Index study that it could take the UK 24 years, until 2041, to close its gender pay gap. * PwC publishes the Low Carbon Economy Index, which tracks the extent to which the G20 countries are reducing carbon emissions. * The Economy of the Sea is a long-term analysis project of PwC
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. It is part of the HELM project, launched in 2006 to create an integrated approach to successful and sustainable maritime practices. It analyses best practices around the world and compiles data from industries that rely or work on the sea and the nations that use it. * PwC developed the Total Impact Measurement and Management (TIMM) framework, designed to assist companies in carrying out impact studies which will help them put a value on all of a company's activities, products or services.


Offices

PwC has partners in approximately 800 offices across 157 countries with 200,000 employees. Notable offices: Seaport office tower in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
; and Magwa Crescent Waterfall City tower in
Midrand Midrand is a former municipality in central Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated in-between Centurion and Sandton and now forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. History Midrand was established as a municipality in 1 ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. The following list of revenue according to region is from the PwC Global Annual Review: 2018.


Logo

The following are the several logos the company has used through the years. The current PwC logo was introduced in September 2010, when the company changed its trading name from PricewaterhouseCoopers to PwC. It was designed by
Wolff Olins Wolff Olins is a British advertising agency and corporate identity consultancy. It was started in 1965 and has offices in London, New York City and San Francisco. It now employs some 150 designers, strategists, technologists, programme managers ...
. File:Coopers & Lybrand logo.svg, The Coopers & Lybrand logo prior to the 1998 merger File:Pw logo.png, The Price Waterhouse logo prior to the 1998 merger File:PricewaterhouseCoopers.svg, The PricewaterhouseCoopers logo from 1998 to 2010 File:PricewaterhouseCoopers Logo.png, The PwC logo from 2010 to present


Corporate affairs and culture

The company employs large numbers of young workers, with 80% of their workforce millennials as of 2017. According to PwC, the company uses education to bridge the culture gap between generations. The firm also implements a three-step "Connect-Embed-Improve" plan to promote employee engagement. The company requires senior-level staff to continue to train and learn; PwC also created a social collaboration platform called Spark to enable employees to access course materials and assignments, complete prerequisites and access reinforcement materials. In 2016, Tim Ryan, PwC's chairman, helped launch the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion coalition, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Employees at PwC generally have flexibility in choosing their own working hours provided that senior management deems the arrangement acceptable. In 2002, PwC published the accounting profession's first global "Code of Conduct". Strategy& and PwC publish '' Strategy+Business'', a print and online business magazine focusing on management issues and corporate strategy. In June 2021, PwC together with Edelman, the company's agency partner, launched a program, The Trust Leadership Institute. PwC developed a ''ColourBrave Charity Committee'', made up of employees from across the organisation, as part of its commitment to continue to build an inclusive culture and address racial disparity. The Committee chose 25 Black-led organisations and civil society organisations to join the PwC Foundation and PwC Social Entrepreneurs Club's existing list of beneficiaries. , PwC is the fourth-largest
privately owned company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
in the United States.


Partnerships

In 2014,
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
announced its partnership with PwC to drive cloud adoption among businesses. Partnering with Google is part of PwC's decision to begin to move its own business to the
cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...
. PwC is one of three million business customers using paid services through
Google Workspace Google Workspace (formerly known as Google Apps and later G Suite) is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It consists of Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Meet ...
, previously known as G Suite and Apps for Work. PwC partners with the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
to help keep the international organization's monitoring systems up to date. PwC is also one of the founding partners with the
UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women advocates for the rights of women and girls, and focu ...
HeForShe HeForShe, often referred to as He for She, is a solidarity movement for the advancement of gender equality, initiated by the United Nations. Grounded in the idea that gender inequality is an issue that affects all people, socially, economicall ...
IMPACT 10x10x10 Initiative, launched in 2015, to advance
gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...
. The initiative created an online course which aims to increase awareness of unconscious gender bias in corporate life. In May 2016, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, PwC was, along with Microsoft, one of the principal sponsors of the inaugural
ID2020 ID2020 is a nongovernmental organization ( 501(c)(3)) which advocates for digital ID for the billion undocumented people worldwide and under-served groups like refugees. Dakota Gruener is the executive director of ID2020. The NGO was relatively ...
Summit. The summit brought together over 400 people to discuss how to provide digital identity to all, a defined Sustainable Development Goal including to 1.5bn people living without any form of recognized identification. Experts in blockchain and other cryptographic technology joined with representatives of technical standards bodies to identify how technology and other private sector expertise could achieve the goal. In 2016, PwC joined with Microsoft in India to bring the services of both companies to the business community in India. In 2016, the company, in partnership with
Coursera Coursera Inc. () is a U.S.-based massive open online course provider founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses ...
, launched an on-line five-course educational platform called "Data Analysis and Presentation Skills." In January 2017, Oracle and PwC announced their international collaboration to offer accounting software which complied with International Financial Reporting Standard 9 (
IFRS 9 IFRS 9 is an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). It addresses the accounting for financial instruments. It contains three main topics: classification and measuremen ...
). PwC is a partner of the
World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
. In January 2020, the WEF published a document titled "Unlocking Technology for the Global Goals" in collaboration with PwC, discussing the topics of the
Fourth Industrial Revolution The Fourth Industrial Revolution, 4IR, or Industry 4.0, conceptualizes rapid change to technology, industries, and societal patterns and processes in the 21st century due to increasing interconnectivity and smart automation. The term has bee ...
and the
Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...
.


Staff

As of 30 June 2021, PwC had 295,371 employees around the world. The largest percentage of workers are employed in Western Europe, Asia and the Americas. The following shows the number of employees in each region of the world as of FY 2021. The following shows the number of employees by practice areas. The following shows the number of employees by level.


Alumni

Notable firm alumni include: *
Ed Bastian Edward H. Bastian (born June 6, 1957) is an American business executive. He is the ninth and current chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines, serving in this role since May 2, 2016. Early life and education Bastian grew up in Poughkeepsie, ...
– CEO of
Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline, along w ...
*
Mike Dooley Mike Dooley (born 7 February 1961, Orange, California) is a New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and entrepreneur in the philosophical New Thought movement. His teachings contain the premise that our "thoughts become things," an expression ...
– author, speaker and entrepreneur * Tony Harrington – former CEO of
MinterEllison MinterEllison is a multinational law firm, and professional services firm, based in Australia. The firm has fifteen offices and operates in five countries. By number of lawyers it is the largest law firm in Australia. History MinterEllison is ...
*
Phil Knight Philip Hampson Knight (born February 24, 1938) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder and chairman ''emeritus'' of Nike, Inc., and was previously chairman and CEO of the company. As of October 3, 2022, Knight was ranke ...
– Founder of
Nike, Inc. Nike, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services. The company is headquartered ne ...
* Tanoh Kpassagnon
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...
for the
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...
of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
* Richard J. Kramer – Chairman, President and CEO of the
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tire manufacturing company founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling and based in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, S ...
* Ian Powell – Chairman of
Capita Capita plc, commonly known as Capita, is an international business process outsourcing and professional services company headquartered in London. It is the largest business process outsourcing and professional services company in the United K ...
, an outsourcing company * Brian Roche – New Zealand business executive * Dhivya Suryadevara – CFO of
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
* Brad Tilden – CEO and Chairman of
Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is the sixth largest airline in North America when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and the num ...
* Wendell Weeks – President of Corning Inc.


Recognition

In 2010,
Gartner Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its client ...
recognized PwC with a Top Rating for Financial Consulting. In 2012, ''
CartaCapital ''CartaCapital'' is a weekly Brazilian newsmagazine published in Santana do Parnaíba, São Paulo and João Pessoa, Paraíba and distributed throughout the country by Editora Confiança. The main focuses of the magazine are politics, economy, so ...
'' magazine ranked PwC Brazil No. 1 in the Audit segment in its list of Brazil's Most Admired Companies. PwC's Public Sector practice was awarded the
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recognizes U.S. organizations in the business, health care, education, and nonprofit sectors for performance excellence. The Baldrige Award is the highest formal recognition of the performance excellen ...
in 2014. The company was recognized by the European Diversity Awards as the 'Most Inclusive Employer of the Year' in 2015. PwC received the full five stars on the
Business in the Community Business in the Community (BITC) is a British business-community outreach charity promoting responsible business, CSR, corporate responsibility, and is one of the Prince's Charities of King Charles III (formerly the Prince of Wales). BITC work ...
(BITC) Corporate Responsibility Index for several years, and achieved it again in 2016 with a score of 99%. They were one of only four professional services companies to do so. Advertising Age named PwC Digital Services Experience Center one of the four best places to work in advertising and media in 2016. International Accounting Bulletin awarded PwC the "Audit Innovation of the Year" award for 2016. PwC Singapore won the Best Practice Award in 2016 from the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants. In 2016, Brand Finance named PwC as the strongest business to business brand, and one of the world's 10 most powerful brands in their annual index. PwC ranked No. 3 in DiversityInc's Top 12 Companies for Global Diversity in 2016. PwC India won the 2016 Association of Management Consulting Firms' Global Spotlight Award in the Growth Strategies category. PwC was voted by a poll of recently employed graduates as number one on ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' list of Top 100 Graduate Employers for 2016, for the 13th consecutive year. The ''
Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...
'' Client Choice Awards recognized PwC with the Market Leader Australia award for 2016 and 2017. Brand Finance ranked PwC among the world's 500 most valuable brands in 2017. As of 2020, PwC is ranked #5 on ''Forbes America's Largest Private Companies list, #68 on their World's Most Valuable Brands, and #85 on their Best Employers for Diversity; it is also on their list of America's Top Recommended Tax and Accounting Firms. As of 2020, PwC US has been on ''Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For in the US for 16 years.


Litigation


Gender employment discrimination

In 1989, the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
held that Price Waterhouse must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the decision regarding
Ann Hopkins Ann Hopkins (December 18, 1943 – June 23, 2018) was an American business manager who was the plaintiff in the landmark American employment discrimination case '' Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins''. Early life and education Ann Branigar Hopkins w ...
's employment would have been the same if
sex discrimination Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...
had not occurred. The accounting firm failed to prove that the same decision to postpone Hopkins's promotion to the partnership would have still been made in the absence of sex discrimination, and therefore, the employment decision constituted sex discrimination under
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...
. The significance of the Supreme Court's ruling was twofold. First, it established that gender stereotyping is actionable as sex discrimination. Second, it established the mixed-motive framework as an evidentiary framework for proving discrimination under a disparate treatment theory even when lawful reasons for the adverse employment action are also present. Hopkins's candidacy for partnership had been put on indefinite hold. She eventually resigned and sued the company for
occupational sexism Occupational sexism (also called sexism in the workplace and employment sexism) is discrimination based on a person's sex that occurs in a place of employment. Social role theory Social role theory may explain one reason for why occupational s ...
, arguing that her lack of promotion came after pressure to walk, talk, dress, and act more "femininely." In 1990, a Federal district judge in Washington ordered the firm to make Hopkins a partner. It was the first time in which a court awarded partnership in a professional company as a remedy for sexual or race-based discrimination. Following the suit, the firm received media attention due to its discriminatory labor practices towards males as well. Although incidents of such labor marginalization take place rarely, there were several cases of unfair work treatment.


Tax issues

In 2014, it came to light that PwC had received $55m from
Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar Inc. (stock symbol CAT) is an American ''Fortune'' 500 corporation and the world's largest construction-equipment manufacturer. In 2018, Caterpillar was ranked number 65 on the ''Fortune'' 500 list and number 238 on the Global ''Fo ...
to develop a
tax avoidance Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdict ...
scheme, according to an investigation of the US Senate, and had helped Caterpillar Inc. drastically reduce its taxes for more than a decade. Profits valued at $8bn were shifted from the US to Switzerland, which allegedly made it possible to save more than $2.4bn in US taxes over a decade. In Switzerland profits were taxed at 4%. A PricewaterhouseCoopers managing director who was involved in designing the tax savings plan had written at the time to a PwC partner: "We'll all be retired when this ... comes up on audit."


American International Group Inc.

In 2005, ''BusinessWeek'' reported that PwC was
American International Group American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...
Inc.'s auditor through AIG's years of "questionable dealings" and accounting improprieties. AIG on 30 March 2005, said that deals with a
Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
-based insurance company, for instance, may have been incorrectly accounted for over the past 14 years, because an AIG-affiliated company may have been secretly covering that insurer's losses.Tough Questions For AIG's Auditors – Regulators are probing if PwC let the financial shenanigans slip through
Businessweek, Joseph Weber, Mike McNamee, Marcia Vickers and Diane Brady, 11 April 2005
''BusinessWeek'' said that PwC also appeared to have "dropped the ball" on the deals between AIG and
Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...
Inc.'s General Re Corp. General Re transferred $500 million in anticipated claims and premiums to AIG. ''BusinessWeek'' asked: "Did the auditor do its job by verifying that AIG was assuming risk on claims beyond the $500 million, thus allowing AIG to account for the deal as insurance? That's Accounting 101 in any reinsurance transaction." PwC was also criticised by several witnesses during the 2010
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) was a ten-member commission appointed by the leaders of the United States Congress with the goal of investigating the causes of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. The Commission has been nicknamed t ...
investigation into AIG's collapse in the
financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
, after the insurer was unable to fulfil its collateral obligations to
Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...
. The insurer was expected to cover the difference in value between the
credit default swap A credit default swap (CDS) is a financial swap agreement that the seller of the CDS will compensate the buyer in the event of a debt default (by the debtor) or other credit event. That is, the seller of the CDS insures the buyer against som ...
contracts it had sold to Goldman Sachs, however, the head of the unit at AIG disagreed with the valuation that Goldman presented. According to a memo published by ''Business Insider'', witnesses wondered how PwC was signing off on the accounts for both AIG and Goldman Sachs when they were using different valuation methods for the swaps contracts (and therefore booked different values for them in their accounts).


ChuoAoyama suspension

was the Japanese affiliate of assurance service of PwC from April 2000 to 2006. In May 2006, the Financial Services Agency of Japan suspended ChuoAoyama from provision of some statutory auditing services for two months following the collapse of cosmetics company Kanebo, of which three of the partners were found assisting with accounting fraud for hiding deficits of about $1.9 billion over the course of five years. The accountants got suspended prison terms up to 18 months from the Tokyo District Court after the judge deemed them to have played a "passive role" in the crime. The suspension was the first-ever imposed on a major accounting firm in the country. Many of the firm's largest clients were forced to find replacement auditors before the suspension began that July. Shortly after the suspension of ChuoAoyama, PwC acted quickly to stem any possible client attrition as a result of the scandal. It set up the PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata, and some of ChuoAoyama's accountants and most of ChuoAoyama's clients moved to the new firm. ChuoAoyama resumed operations on 1 September 2006, under the Misuzu name. However, by this point the two firms combined had 30% fewer clients than did ChuoAoyama prior to its suspension. Misuzu was dissolved in July 2007.


Tyco settlement

In July 2007, PwC agreed to pay US$229 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by shareholders of Tyco International Ltd. over a multibillion-dollar accounting fraud. The chief executive and chief financial officer of Tyco were found guilty of looting $600 million from the company.


Indian companies scandals

In 2007, India's accounting standards agency ICAI found partners of PwC guilty of professional negligence in under-providing for nonperforming assets of the now-defunct Global Trust Bank. This led to the RBI banning PwC from auditing any financial company for over a year. PwC was also associated with the accounting scandal at the India-based
DSQ Software DSQ Software Ltd, established in 1992 and headquartered in Chennai formerly Madras, India was a publicly listed IT and Software services consulting company mainly operated overseas using its base in India. DSQ was in the league of IT companies ...
, which collapsed in 2003. In January 2009, PwC was criticised, along with the promoters of Satyam, an Indian IT firm listed on the
NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
, in a $1.5 billion fraud. PwC wrote a letter to the board of directors of Satyam that its audit may be rendered "inaccurate and unreliable" due to the disclosures made by Satyam's (ex) Chairman and subsequently withdrew its audit opinions. PwC's US arm "was the reviewer for the U.S. filings for Satyam". Consequently, lawsuits were filed in the US with PwC as a defendant. Two partners of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Srinivas Talluri and Subramani Gopalakrishnan, were charged by India's Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Satyam scandal. After the scandal broke out, Subramani Gopalakrishnan retired from the firm after reaching mandatory retirement age, while Talluri remained on suspension from the firm. Following the Satyam scandal, the Mumbai-based Small Investor Grievances Association (SIGA) requested the Indian stock market regulator SEBI to ban PwC permanently and seize its assets in India alleging more scandals like "Ketan Parekh stock manipulations." In 2015, PwC India said they were disappointed with court judgement of the case saying, "As we have said many times, there has never been any evidence presented that either of our former partners S Gopalakrishnan or Srinivas Talluri were involved in or were aware of the management-led fraud at Satyam. We understand that Gopal and Talluri are considering filing an appeal against this verdict." In 2018, PwC was banned by India's securities regulator from providing auditing services to public-listed companies for 2 years, and PwC was fined $2 million in addition to the suspension. In September 2019, this ban was overruled by the securities appellate tribunal stating that there was no evidence of collusion of PwC in the scam. The tribunal also stated that SEBI had no jurisdiction over audit firms and only ICAI could issue such an order.


Association with the hiring of a person accused in gold smuggling case

PwC, which provides consulting service to the
Kerala government Government of Kerala is the subnational government of the Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision ...
's Department of Information Technology and its Space Park project, has been criticised for appointing Ms. Swapana Suresh, who is accused in a case of smuggling gold in a diplomatic bag. Following an investigation, the Kerala government decided to terminate the consultancy services of PwC for the proposed Space Park project in
Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...
. PwC sub-contracted the resource from a vendor, Vision Technologies, but the government considers that the primary liability is on PwC for recruiting Swapna Suresh. Even before these events, the opening of the PwC office in
Kerala secretariat The Kerala Government Secretariat ( ml, Saṁsthāna Sarkkār Sirākēndraṁ) is the seat of administration of the Government of Kerala, in Thiruvananthapuram, housing important ministries and bureaucratic offices. It is the highest echelon of ...
had attracted serious criticism from the opposition party. Following this, PwC issued clarification on their hiring of Ms. Swapna Suresh by stating that she was hired based on a background verification report from past employers as well as a criminal record verification at the time. In February 2022, the state government of Kerala wrote to PwC in order to seek the refund of INR 16 Lacs paid in salary to Swapna Suresh. In April 2022, the company responded that it can't repay the amount.


Yukos prosecutions

Yukos OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" (russian: ОАО Нефтяна́я Компа́ния Ю́КОС, links=no, ) was an oil and gas company based in Moscow, Russia. Yukos was acquired from the Russian government by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkov ...
was a Russian oil and gas company that was the target of politically motivated prosecutions by Russian authorities. The company's assets were sold for alleged unpaid taxes and it was declared bankrupt. PwC's audits were the foundation for the firm's defense in a series of continuing trials against former chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the former majority shareholder,
Platon Lebedev Platon Leonidovich Lebedev (Russian: Плато́н Леони́дович Ле́бедев; born 29 November 1956) is a Russian businessman and former CEO of Group Menatep. He was convicted of tax evasion, money laundering and embezzlement by ...
. The Russian authorities then went after PwC. In March 2007, police raided PwC's Moscow offices, confiscating documents related to Yukos and charging and convicting PwC of failing to pay 243 million rubles, or $9.4 million, in taxes. PwC withdrew its Yukos audits and less than two weeks later authorities cleared PwC of any wrongdoing in regard to its audit. In 2010,
Joe Nocera Joseph Nocera (born May 6, 1952) is an American business journalist, and author. He has written for The New York Times since April 2005, writing for the Op-Ed page from 2011 to 2015. He was also an opinion columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Early ...
in the ''New York Times'' wrote, "In 2007, with the prospect of parole on the horizon, the same prosecutors—with what appears to be the complicity of PricewaterhouseCoopers,
Yukos OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" (russian: ОАО Нефтяна́я Компа́ния Ю́КОС, links=no, ) was an oil and gas company based in Moscow, Russia. Yukos was acquired from the Russian government by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkov ...
's longtime accounting firm—indicted the two men (Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev), again, bringing a new round of Kafkaesque charges." In 2010, it was revealed that the Russian government placed pressure on PwC to withdraw audits. A cable from the U.S. embassy in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
stated that the trial was politically motivated and that a deposition in a U.S. court by PricewaterhouseCoopers may show that PwC was pressured by the Russian government to withdraw its prior Yukos audits. An embassy source noted that "If the audits were properly withdrawn, this will be a 'black mark' for the defense; if not, it could help the defense, but would greatly tarnish PWC's international reputation."


Transneft Russia case

Upon the completion of the construction of the ESPO (East Siberia-Pacific Ocean) pipeline by
Transneft Joint Stock Company Transneft (russian: Транснефть) is a state-controlled pipeline transport company headquartered in Moscow, Russia. It is the largest oil pipeline company in the world. Transneft is operating over of trunk pipeline ...
in December 2010, an official report of the Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation suggested that $4 billion was stolen by Transneft insiders. One Federation Council Speaker, Sergei Mironov, called for an investigation.
Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolievich Navalny ( rus, links=no, Алексей Анатольевич Навальный, , ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ nɐˈvalʲnɨj; born 4 June 1976) is a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption act ...
, a minority Transneft shareholder and lawyer, accused the company of wrongdoing in his personal blog, and criticized PwC, Transneft's auditor, of ignoring his warnings. PwC denied wrongdoing, stating that, "We believe there are absolutely no grounds for such allegations, and we stand behind our work for OAO AK Transneft."


Northern Rock

In 2007, PwC was criticised by the
Treasury Select Committee The House of Commons Treasury Committee (often referred to as the Treasury Select Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administr ...
of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
for helping
Northern Rock Northern Rock, formerly the Northern Rock Building Society, was a British bank. Based at Regent Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Northern Rock was originally a building society. It demutualised and became Northern Rock bank i ...
, a client of the firm, to sell its mortgage assets while also acting as its auditor. In 2011, a
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
inquiry criticized PwC for not drawing attention to the risks in the business model followed by Northern Rock, which was rescued by the UK government during the financial crisis.


JP Morgan Securities audit

In 2012, the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) of the UK fined PwC a record £1.4m for wrongly reporting to the Financial Services Authority that JP Morgan Securities had complied with client money rules which protects client funds. The accountants neglected to check whether JP Morgan had the correct systems in place and failed to gather sufficient evidence to form opinions on the issue, and as a result, failed to report that JP Morgan failed to hold client money separate from JP Morgan's money. The £1.4m fine was at the time the greatest penalty administered to a professional accountancy firm in the UK.


Water privatisation in Delhi

PwC was found to be unethically favored by the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
in a bid to privatize the water distribution system of
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
, India, an effort that was alleged as corrupt by investigators. When bidding took place, PwC repeatedly failed in each round, and the World Bank in each case pressured PwC to be pushed to the next round and eventually win the bid. The effort at privatization fell through when an investigation was conducted by
Arvind Kejriwal Arvind Kejriwal (Hindi: ɾʋin̪d̪ ked͡ʒɾiːʋaːl born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician, former bureaucrat, and activist who is the 7th and current Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015. Currently, he is the national co ...
and the non-governmental organization (NGO)
Parivartan Parivartan (''Transformation'') is a grass-roots activism organisation based in the Sundar Nagari area of New Delhi, India. During the 2000s, Parivartan used Right to Information (RTI) to address citizens' grievances related to Public Distributio ...
in 2005. After submitting a
Right to Information The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of RTI Act, an ...
(RTI) request, Parivartan received 9000 pages of correspondence and consultation with the World Bank, where it was revealed that the privatization of Delhi's water supply would provide salaries of $25,000 a month to four administrators of each of the 21 water zones, which amounted to over $25 million per year, increasing the budget by over 60% and water taxes 9 times.. BharatKiAwaaz. The
Delhi Jal Board Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is the government agency responsible for supply of potable water to the most of the National Capital Territory region of Delhi, India. Delhi Jal Board was constituted on 6 April 1998 through an Act of the Delhi Legislative ...
(DJB), which administers the water system of Delhi, was first approached by Parivartan in November 2004, following a report by the newspaper ''
The Asian Age ''The Asian Age'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper with editions published in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. It also prints an "international edition" in London. It was launched in February 1994. The same publishing company also prod ...
'', where the scheme was revealed to the public for the first time. The DJB denied the existence of the project, but after an appeal, the RTI request was granted. The documents revealed that the project began in 1998, in complete secrecy within the DJB administration. The DJB approached the World Bank for a loan to improve the water system, which it approved, and the effort began with a $2.5 million consultation loan. The Delhi government could have easily provided the money, and the interest rate of 12% that was to be loaned by the World Bank could have been raised on capital markets for 6%. Following the consultation, 35 multinational companies bid, of which six were to be shortlisted. When PwC was in 10th place, the World Bank said that at least one company should be from a developing country, and since PwC made the bid from its
Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
office, it was dubbed an "Indian" company, and its rank was raised to 6th. When PwC failed in the second round, the World Bank pressured the DJB to start over with a fresh round of bidding. Only one company succeeded in the new round that was not PwC, and the World Bank had the lowest marks from an evaluator thrown out. The contract was awarded to PwC in 2001. Following the investigation by Parivartan, a campaign was waged by Kejriwal, Aruna Roy, and other activists across Delhi and the DJB withdrew the loan application to the World Bank.


Cattles

In 2013, Cattles plc brought a legal action against PwC in the UK in respect of 2006 and 2007 audits, claiming that PwC had failed to carry out adequate investigations. Cattles, a UK consumer finance company, later discovered control weaknesses which caused its loan book to be materially overstated in its balance sheet; having been listed as a FTSE250 company, it subsequently lost its listing. PwC disputed this legal claim. The claim was settled out of court on undisclosed terms. The
Financial Reporting Council The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is an independent regulator in the UK and Ireland based in London Wall in the City of London, responsible for regulating auditors, accountants and actuaries, and setting the UK's Corporate Governance and ...
(FRC) issued a fine of £2.3m on PwC and ordered the firm to pay £750,000 costs following their investigation of the 2007 audits of Cattles and its principal trading subsidiary. PwC admitted their "conduct fell significantly short of the standards reasonably to be expected of a member firm" in respect of the 2007 financial statements. The FRC said that PwC had insufficient audit evidence as to the adequacy of loan loss provisions.


Quinn Insurance

In 2015, PwC Ireland was sued by the joint administrators of Quinn Insurance Limited (QIL) for €1bn. Having been audited by PwC for the years 2005 to 2008, QIL went into administration in 2010. The administrators alleged that PwC should have identified a material understatement of QIL's provisions for claims.


Connaught plc

Connaught plc Connaught plc was a company in the United Kingdom, operating in the social housing, public sector and compliance markets. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, it went into administration in October 2010. History The business was founded by Wil ...
, a UK former FTSE 250 Index outsourcing company operating in property maintenance for the social housing and public sector, was put into administration in 2010 after reporting material losses. In 2017, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) severely reprimanded PwC and its audit partner following an investigation of their conduct in respect of the 2009 audit of Connaught. PwC was fined a record £5 million plus costs.


Tesco

In 2014,
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
, a UK retailer, announced that it had overstated profits by £263m by misreporting discounts with suppliers. The Financial Reporting Council started an investigation into accounting practices at Tesco and into the conduct of PwC in carrying out its audits in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Two members of Tesco's Audit Committee, responsible for monitoring Tesco's relationship with its auditors, had themselves previously worked for PwC, including its chairman, Ken Hanna; he later stood down. In 2015 PwC were replaced as auditors of Tesco, ending a 32-year engagement, following a tender process to which they did not participate. In June 2017, the Financial Reporting Council said there was no "realistic prospect" that a tribunal of the UK's accountancy watchdog would rule against the auditor PwC concerning its involvement in
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
's 2014 case.


Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ

In 2014,
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is the largest bank in Japan. It was established on January 1, 2006, following the merger of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. and UFJ Bank Ltd. MUFG is one of the three so-called Japanese "megabanks" (along with SMBC and Mizuho). As such, ...
was investigated by New York banking regulators over its role in routing payments for Iranian customers through its New York branch in violation of U.S. sanctions. It was found that PwC had altered an investigation report on the issue; PwC itself was fined $25 million in relation to the matter.


Luxembourg Leaks

The firm helped multinational companies obtain 548 legal tax rulings in
Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
between 2002 and 2010. The rulings provided written assurance that the multinational companies' tax-saving plans would be seen favorably by the Luxembourg authorities. The companies saved billions of dollars in taxes with these arrangements. Some firms paid less than one percent tax on the profits they shifted to Luxembourg. Employees or former employees of PwC provided documentation of the rulings to journalists. In 2013 and 2014, PwC UK's head of tax was called before the UK's public accounts committee and was questioned about lying regarding the marketing of these tax avoidance schemes. He told the committee the financing, investments, and tax structure is legal and well known to the British government. "If you want to change the Lux tax regime, the politicians could change the Lux tax regime." The disclosures attracted international attention and comment about tax avoidance schemes in Luxembourg and other tax havens. The revelations later led to a series of EU-wide measures aimed at regulating tax avoidance schemes and tax probes into several EU companies. In 2016, PwC initiated charges against the two whistleblowers that revealed the LuxLeaks tax controversy, and they were convicted and sentenced with suspended prison sentences and fined. In March 2017, a Luxembourg appeals court upheld the convictions of the two whistleblowers, but with reduced sentences.


Petrobras Brazil

In 2015, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
founder
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
sued oil company Petrobras and accounting firm PwC's Brazil arm over investment losses due to corruption at the Brazilian oil company. The filings also alleged that PwC's Brazil affiliate, PricewaterhouseCoopers Auditores Independentes, played a significant role by attesting to Petrobras financial statements and ignoring warnings.


Australia

In 2016,
Luke Sayers Luke Sayers AM is an Australian businessman. He is the former CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia. Since 2012, Sayers has served on the board of the Carlton Football Club and became the President of Carlton Football Club on August 17, 2021. ...
, then CEO of PwC Australia, had the firm prepare a report projecting the excessive cost of a plebiscite on
gay marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
. Mark Allaby, a senior executive at PwC, left the board of the religious lobbying organisation
Australian Christian Lobby The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) is a conservative right-wing Christian Advocacy group, advocacy organisation based in Canberra. It is similar to the other international Christian lobby groups, and seeks to represent Christian citizens and v ...
, a group campaigning against same-sex marriage, following public outrage and pressure from PwC Australia. In 2007, shopping center giant
Centro Centro may refer to: Places Brazil *Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil *Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Duq ...
understated its liabilities by more than $3 billion and almost collapsed when it was unable to refinance its debt during the global financial crisis. PwC was Centro's auditor and admitted negligence. In 2012, Centro and PwC paid a $200 million settlement to resolve the shareholder class action, the largest ever in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.


BHS

In 2016, PwC in the UK was investigated by the Financial Reporting Council over its conduct in relation to the audit of BHS for the year to 30 August 2014. PwC completed their audit of financial statements in which BHS was described as a going concern days before its sale for £1 to a consortium with no retail experience. BHS collapsed the following year with a substantial deficit in its pension fund.


MF Global malpractice lawsuit

In 2016, a
United States federal judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...
rejected PwC's bid to dismiss a $3 billion lawsuit accusing the accounting firm of professional malpractice for helping cause the October 2011 bankruptcy of
MF Global MF Global, formerly known as Man Financial, was a major global financial derivatives broker, or commodities brokerage firm that went bankrupt in 2011. MF Global provided exchange-traded derivatives, such as futures and options as well as over- ...
, a brokerage once run by former New Jersey Governor
Jon Corzine Jon Stevens Corzine ( ; born January 1, 1947) is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006 and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran fo ...
.


BT Italy

BT Group BT Group plc ( trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, bro ...
(British Telecom), a client of PwC, reported in 2017, that profits in its Italian subsidiary had been over-stated by £530 million. BT reportedly sought the immediate replacement of PwC as auditors following a breakdown of trust, but had existing commercial relationships with the other Big 4 firms which would have prevented their early appointment. BT subsequently stated that its audit would be put out to tender to identify a replacement for PwC, In June 2017, the Financial Reporting Council began an investigation of PwC's audits of BT covering the years 2015 through 2017.


Best Picture announcement error

At the 89th Academy Awards in 2017 ''La La Land'' was incorrectly announced as the winner of
Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
after PwC partner Brian Cullinan gave presenters
Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...
and
Faye Dunaway Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France mad ...
the wrong envelope. PwC was responsible for tabulating the results, preparing the envelopes, and handing them to presenters. It was called "as bad a mess-up as you could imagine." The firm took "full responsibility" for handing the presenters the wrong envelope and apologized for the error, acknowledging that Cullinan and PwC partner Martha Ruiz did not follow protocols for correcting the error quickly. In March 2017, the board of governors for the Academy voted to retain the services of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, despite the mix-up, saying "new protocols have been established including greater oversight from PwC's U.S. chairman Tim Ryan."


Lezo Case

In 2017, PwC Spain was investigated by the
Spanish National Court The Audiencia Nacional (; en, National Court) is a centralised court in Spain with jurisdiction over all of the Spanish territory. It is specialised in a certain scope of delinquency, having original jurisdiction over major crimes such as those ...
as part of the Lezo Case for participating in and profiting from the embezzlement of public funds to illegally finance the People's Party (PP) political party in the
Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; es, Comunidad de Madrid ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and of the Central Plateau (''Meseta Central''). Its capital and largest munici ...
.


PrivatBank

PwC Ukraine had its audit license removed by the
National Bank of Ukraine National Bank of Ukraine ( uk, Національний банк України) or NBU ( uk, НБУ) is the central bank of Ukraine – a government body responsible for unified state policy in the field of country's monetary circulation, includ ...
in July 2017 for its alleged "verification of misrepresented financial information" leading to a $5.5 billion balance-sheet hole in PrivatBank. The government of
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
had had to rescue PrivatBank by nationalisation in 2016 to protect its 20 million customers.


Colonial Bank audit

In 2017, the
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama The United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama (in case citation Case citation is a system used by legal professionals to identify past court case decisions, either in series of books called reporters or law reports, o ...
held PwC liable for professional negligence in its audit of Colonial Bank, which failed in 2009, after filing materially false financial information with the SEC. In 2018, a federal judge later ordered PwC to pay the
FDIC The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures credi ...
$625 million, the largest-ever judgement against a U.S. audit firm. The FDIC reached a $335 million settlement with PwC in March 2019.


Age discrimination lawsuit

In 2018, PwC was accused of disproportionately hiring younger workers and fostering "an age-conscious workplace in which youth is highly valued." Plaintiffs estimated that younger applicants are over 500% more likely to be hired than candidates over age 40. In March 2019, a collective action related to the case was certified by a federal judge in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.


Luke Sayers' AVP investment review

In 2018, PwC Australia CEO Luke Sayers was connected to perceived conflict of interest issues on a related to a personal investment in Australian Visa Processing (AVP), a company part-owned by PwC that was submitting a tender to redesign and run Australia's visa processing system that is potentially worth billions of dollars, which would result in a significant financial advantage for its investors. This investment led to a "storm inside the firm", interjection by PwC Global and a review by PwC Australia of its personal investment policy for partners. The option to invest had not been offered to all partners or even the entire firm. A review was announced around the way partners make personal investments.


Improper audit services in US

During 2019, PwC's US affiliate agreed to pay more than $7.9 million to the US regulator, SEC, to settle allegations that it improperly performed IT and other non-audit services for several audit clients.


Angola corruption

In 2020, the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with pe ...
(ICIJ) leaked over 700,000 internal documents revealing that PwC had facilitated multiple dealings in which
Isabel dos Santos Isabel dos Santos (; born 20 April 1973) is an Angolan businesswoman, the eldest child of Angola's former President José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the country as a dictator from 1979 to 2017. Once considered Africa's richest woman accordi ...
, the daughter of the former president of
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
, made a fortune while in charge of the state oil company,
Sonangol Group Sonangol ( pt, Grupo Sonangol) is a parastatal that formerly oversaw petroleum and natural gas production in Angola. The group consisted of Sonangol E.P. ( pt, Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola, E.P.) and its many subsidiaries. ...
. Dos Santos established a network of over 400 companies to facilitate tax evasion and the steering of millions of dollars of Angolan state contracts to companies under her control. Her husband, Congolese businessman and art collector
Sindika Dokolo Sindika Dokolo (16 March 1972 – 29 October 2020) was a Congolese businessman and art collector. Since 2002 he had been married to Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, then President of Angola. As of January 2020 ...
, made millions from a suspiciously one-sided partnership with the state diamond company, Sodiam, to buy a stake in Swiss luxury jeweler
De Grisogono De Grisogono is a Swiss luxury jeweller founded in Geneva, Switzerland Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the mos ...
. After ICIJ's revelations, PwC indicated it would terminate its relationship with Dos Santos.


Watchstone

In August 2020, a £63 million-worth suit was filed by Watchstone (formerly known as Quindell) against PwC. PwC is sued for conspiring against a former client; according to the suit, the company released information about the client to a competitor in the course of a takeover approach.


MBC Group

During November 2017, PwC was engaged in due diligence and valuation of the media company,
MBC Group MBC Group ( ar, مجموعة إم بي سي), is a Saudi media conglomerate based in the Middle East and North Africa region. Launched in London in 1991, the company moved to its headquarters to Dubai in 2002 then moved to Riyadh in 2022. MBC ...
, owned by Saudi businessman,
Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim ( ar, وليد بن إبراهيم آل إبراهيم ''Walīd bin Ibrahīm Āl Ibrahīm'') (born 1962) is a Saudi Arabian businessman, and founder and chairman of Middle East Broadcasting Center, known as MBC Grou ...
, who was allegedly held against his wishes at the
Ritz-Carlton The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC is an American multinational company that operates the luxury hotel chain known as The Ritz-Carlton. The company has 108 luxury hotels and resorts in 30 countries and territories with 29,158 rooms, in addi ...
in
Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...
as part of an attempt to coerce him into selling it to the
Saudi Crown Prince The crown prince of Saudi Arabia is the second-most important position in Saudi Arabia, second to the King, and is his designated successor. Currently, the Crown Prince assumes power with the approval of the Allegiance Council after he is nomi ...
.


JD Classics

In July 2021, PwC was sued by administrators
Alvarez and Marsal Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) is a global professional services firm notable for its work in turnaround management and performance improvement of a number of large, high-profile businesses both in the US and abroad such as Lehman Brothers, HealthSouth, T ...
on behalf of JD Classics, a UK-based car dealership, for
negligence Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as a ...
related to audits in 2016 and 2017. A failure to identify fraud at the company led to losses of £41m. PwC responded with a statement that "this claim acksmerit and ewill be vigorously defending it."


Lobbying revolving door

In 2021, an investigation by the ''New York Times'' found that PwC staff sought employment at the Treasury Department where they pursued policies that helped PwC clients. After completing their time at the Treasury Department, the staff were promoted to partner at PwC.


Evergrande

In October 2021, the accounting regulator in Hong Kong announced an investigation into PwC's audit of
Evergrande The China Evergrande Group is the second largest property developer in China by sales. It is ranked 122nd on the ''Fortune'' Global 500. It is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, and headquartered in the Houhai ...
, a Chinese property company. PwC had signed off the 2020 accounts of Evergrande without reference to its uncertainties as a going concern. The company itself reported concerns as to its ability to continue operating in its half-year accounts for 2021.


South African Airways

The
Zondo Commission The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State, better known as the Zondo Commission or State Capture Commission, is a public inquiry established in Janu ...
report on state capture in South Africa uncovered several instances of alleged corruption, fraud and mismanagement at South African Airways (SAA). The report found that PwC effectively enabled capture of SAA by failing to adequately audit its financial and accounting processes between 2012 and 2016.


Kier and Galliford Try

In June 2022, the UK's
Financial Reporting Council The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is an independent regulator in the UK and Ireland based in London Wall in the City of London, responsible for regulating auditors, accountants and actuaries, and setting the UK's Corporate Governance and ...
fined PwC and a former partner, Jonathan Hook, over audit failures relating to construction firms
Galliford Try Galliford Try plc is a British construction company based in Leicester, England. It was created through a merger in 2000 of two businesses: Try Group, founded in 1908 in London, and Galliford, founded in 1916. Formerly involved in house-build ...
and
Kier Group Kier Group plc is a British construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, and the Private Finance Initiative. Founded in 1928 in Stoke-on-Trent it initially specialised in concrete enginee ...
. PwC was fined just over £3m for failing to adequately challenge revenue and costs recognised by Galliford Try's management on large, complex long-term construction contracts during 2018 and 2019 audits, and fined £1.96m for similar failures during the 2017 audit of Kier. Both fines were reduced (from £5m and £3.35m respectively) to reflect PwC's cooperation with the investigation.


See also

* Accounting networks and associations *
Big Four accounting firms The Big Four are the four largest professional services networks in the world, the global accounting networks Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The four are often grouped because they are comparable in size re ...
*
List of companies based in London This is a list of companies in London, England. London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. With an estimated 8,308,369 residents in 2012, London is the most populous region, urban zone and metropolitan area in the United ...
* '' Price Waterhouse v Kwan'' *
Tax advisor A tax advisor or tax consultant is a person with advanced training and knowledge of tax law. The services of a tax advisor are usually retained in order to minimize taxation while remaining compliant with the law in complicated financial situations. ...


References


Further reading

* Allen, David Grayson; McDermott, Kathleen, (1992) ''Accounting for Success: A History of Price Waterhouse in America 1890–1990'', 1992, Harvard Business School Press, * Jones, E., (1995) ''True and Fair: A History of Price Waterhouse'', Hamish Hamilton, * ''A History of Cooper Brothers 1854-1954'', B.T. Batsford, London, 1954 * ''An Early History of Coopers & Lybrand'', 1984, Garland Publishing Inc.,


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pwc Management consulting firms of the United Kingdom International management consulting firms * Financial services companies established in 1849 Consulting firms established in 1849 Accounting firms of the United Kingdom 1849 establishments in England Financial technology companies Companies based in London Outsourcing Privately held companies of the United Kingdom