Deloitte Hit With Record 15 Million Pound Fine For Autonomy Audit

Autonomy, founded by Mike Lynch, was bought for $11 billion by Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2011, but the deal turned sour a year later when HP wrote off three-quarters of the former FTSE 100 company’s value, alleging it had been deceived by its finances.

The Financial Reporting Council said Deloitte has also been severely reprimanded, and has agreed to provide a “root cause” analysis of the reasons for the misconduct.

Deloitte said it regretted that the FRC tribunal had ruled that aspects of its audit work on Autonomy between 2009 and 2011 fell below the professional standards required.

“Our audit practices and processes have evolved significantly since this work was performed over a decade ago, and we continue to transform our audit by investing in firm-wide controls, technology and processes,” Deloitte said.