The WSJ reports today that KPMG fired the head of its tax-services division and two partner/board members. KPMG is under investigation by the DOJ for tax products that its sold that the IRS later declared illegal. I have written before about the ethics of firing employees as knee-jerk reactions. The KPMG firings were less knee-jerk firings to appear ethical and more considered actions to appear "cooperative" to the DOJ. John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum has also blogged on DOJ tactics to separate the corporate entity from directors/officers.
I continue to be stunned by the hypocrisy of the new ethical climate in which businesses "do the right thing" by being disloyal to employees that had institutional support behind the endeavors in question. KPMG was more than happy to receive revenue from aggressive tax products, but now tries to appear above it all by firing the very people it praised right before the DOJ called.
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1. Posted by Mindy on June 15, 2005 @ 15:30 | Permalink
Well, you have to remember that KPMG is owned by the Partner level "employees". This fradulent tax policy was created and endorsed by Partners within KPMG, so someone (a Partner) is responsible for it. KPMG is not a publically traded copmany, so in some back room somewhere Partners (part owners) voted these people out. It wasn't a firing. You can be sure that KPMG is still paying their legal counsel and these part owners are still getting their profit sharing (paychecks).
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