Normal
Joe Aston summarising it for me. Luke Sayers is not reading the roomSayers doesn’t think he’s done a single thing wrong. This is all just another level in the video game of his professional climbing.Joe Aston Columnist Aug 8, 2023Well, well, well, the Sergeant Schultz defence of former PwC chief executive Luke Sayers has disintegrated upon impact with the first available piece of verifiable information....Late on Monday, the Senate Economics Committee released a “comprehensive timeline of events relevant to the PwC matter” produced by the Australian Taxation Office in response to a question on notice from Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill.The ATO’s timeline revealed that second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn met with Sayers on August 29, 2019 to discuss, among other things, the ATO’s “concerns related to PwC conduct” including the firm’s potential criminal non-compliance with formal notices to produce information by making false claims of legal professional privilege.In that meeting, Hirschhorn specifically “suggested to [Sayers that he] personally review the internal emails” that PwC had surrendered to the ATO two years earlier. This was a similar cache of emails to the one sensationally published by the Senate in May this year.Sayers’ sole account up to this point was his June 21 statement that he “was not aware of the confidentiality issues that have since emerged within the international tax practice at PwC”.On Tuesday, Sayers released a longer statement confirming that “During my tenure as CEO … I and other representatives of PwC met with the ATO to discuss a number of issues relating to aggressive tax practices, promoter penalties and claims of legal professional privilege on behalf of clients of PwC” but that “I did not personally review the tens of thousands of documents and emails which PwC provided to the ATO as part of these processes, nor do I recall that being suggested to me by the ATO”.This is Sayers throwing up the busy man defence, giving off an impression of cooperation. I met with lots of people, but none of them have names so you can’t cross-check their recollections. There were thousands of documents. I don’t recall. I was dealing with numerous issues.‘This is serious, pal’Oh Lukey, who said anything about tens of thousands of documents? The ATO suggested you read something like 144 pages of emails, which half of Australia devoured in one afternoon three months ago. The general population read them for free. It was literally your job to read them – you were only paid $4.5 million that year – and you still didn’t.Remember, this wasn’t some dandruffy old cardigan from accounts payable. This was the second commissioner of taxation dragging you into an explicit meeting to say this is serious, pal. Read the goddamn emails.It says so much about Sayers’ seriously impaired risk perception...
Joe Aston summarising it for me.
Sayers doesn’t think he’s done a single thing wrong. This is all just another level in the video game of his professional climbing.
Joe Aston Columnist Aug 8, 2023
Well, well, well, the Sergeant Schultz defence of former PwC chief executive Luke Sayers has disintegrated upon impact with the first available piece of verifiable information....
Late on Monday, the Senate Economics Committee released a “comprehensive timeline of events relevant to the PwC matter” produced by the Australian Taxation Office in response to a question on notice from Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill.
The ATO’s timeline revealed that second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn met with Sayers on August 29, 2019 to discuss, among other things, the ATO’s “concerns related to PwC conduct” including the firm’s potential criminal non-compliance with formal notices to produce information by making false claims of legal professional privilege.
In that meeting, Hirschhorn specifically “suggested to [Sayers that he] personally review the internal emails” that PwC had surrendered to the ATO two years earlier. This was a similar cache of emails to the one sensationally published by the Senate in May this year.
Sayers’ sole account up to this point was his June 21 statement that he “was not aware of the confidentiality issues that have since emerged within the international tax practice at PwC”.
On Tuesday, Sayers released a longer statement confirming that “During my tenure as CEO … I and other representatives of PwC met with the ATO to discuss a number of issues relating to aggressive tax practices, promoter penalties and claims of legal professional privilege on behalf of clients of PwC” but that “I did not personally review the tens of thousands of documents and emails which PwC provided to the ATO as part of these processes, nor do I recall that being suggested to me by the ATO”.
This is Sayers throwing up the busy man defence, giving off an impression of cooperation. I met with lots of people, but none of them have names so you can’t cross-check their recollections. There were thousands of documents. I don’t recall. I was dealing with numerous issues.
Oh Lukey, who said anything about tens of thousands of documents? The ATO suggested you read something like 144 pages of emails, which half of Australia devoured in one afternoon three months ago. The general population read them for free. It was literally your job to read them – you were only paid $4.5 million that year – and you still didn’t.
Remember, this wasn’t some dandruffy old cardigan from accounts payable. This was the second commissioner of taxation dragging you into an explicit meeting to say this is serious, pal. Read the goddamn emails.
It says so much about Sayers’ seriously impaired risk perception...
Hello and welcome to Aussie Stock Forums!
To gain full access you must register. Registration is free and takes only a few seconds to complete.
Already a member? Log in here.
