PwC partner sues to stop firm forcing him out over tax leaks
A veteran PwC Australia tax partner specialising in providing research and development incentive advice has become the first partner named by the firm over its tax leaks scandal to take legal action to stop the firm forcing him out of its partnership.
Richard Gregg, who has been a partner at PwC since 2013, obtained a temporary injunction on Wednesday afternoon that prevents PwC from forcing him to “retire from the partnership of PricewaterhouseCoopers”, according to a court order.
Mr Gregg was one of eight partners named in a PwC statement on July 3 who had “exited or [were] in the process of being removed from the partnership”. He alleges the firm named him publicly in the statement without warning and without giving him a chance to defend the allegations made against him by the firm.
New PwC chief executive Kevin Burrowes is listed in the court order.
The July 3 statement, which also named former CEO Tom Seymour and former chairman Peter van Dongen, noted Mr Gregg had “been given notice of PwC Australia’s findings against him and a process has started under the Partnership Agreement to remove him from the partnership”.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Gregg was granted a temporary injunction in the Supreme Court of NSW that stopped PwC from making him “retire from the partnership of PricewaterhouseCoopers”, according to a court order.
New PwC Australia chief executive Kevin Burrowes, who formally began in the role this week, along with 10 other unspecified defendants, are listed in the court order. Mr Gregg is being represented by defamation lawyer Rebekah Giles, while the firm is being represented by Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s head of class actions Chris Pagent.
There is a detailed process that PwC’s leadership must
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