The Auditor Oversight Authority APAS, part of the German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control, has been exercising profession-independent oversight of auditors in Germany since 2016. According to a Financial Times report, APAS closed investigations against four current and former EY auditors involved in the audit procedures of collapsed Wirecard. They renounced their professional licenses and left the profession earlier this month.
Under German law, APAS can only investigate and sanction potential misconduct by active accountants enrolled in the country’s register of public accountants. Four current and former EY employees resigned this month from the country’s chamber of public accountants. According Financial Times, the three EY audit partners Martin Dahmen, who is still employed by EY, as well as Andreas Budde and Andreas Loetscher, who have both left the firm, were among those who resigned. The fourth individual was a less senior auditor who worked on the Wirecard mandate. T
Wirecard received a clean bill of health from EY for close to a decade but eventually had to disclose that €1.9 billion in corporate cash and half of the company’s reported revenue did not exist. APAS told the Financial Times that the case was closed against four individuals who handed back their licenses.
EY confirmed that individual auditors have decided to renounce their licenses as auditors.
