Industry insiders and Chinese netizens urged the top accounting firms to investigate people who claim to be their staff and fire employees found to have the wrong stance on the current Hong Kong situation, despite distancing themselves from a statement published in the city’s Apple Daily newspaper on Friday requesting the release of arrested rioters.
The firms – KPMG, Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are obligated to give an explanation as their business reputation has been hijacked by anonymous people who claim to be their employees, observers said. They said the firms should launch a formal investigation on the matter.
The statement, the result of a crowdfunding campaign by people claiming to be accountants working at the four firms in Hong Kong, denounced comments made by senior executives of their firms in which illegal protests were condemned and tried to whitewash arrested rioters as “righteous guys,” amid increasingly violent protests which bring huge damages to the city.
The statement said the public condemnation of protests by leaders of their respective firms only focus on their self-interests.