Corporate regulator evaluated grounds for targeting ex-PwC boss Luke Sayers amid tax scandal

The corporate regulator and parliament examined whether they had grounds to target figures involved in the PwC scandal including the firm’s former boss, Luke Sayers.

Former PwC boss Luke Sayers appears at a Senate inquiry. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The corporate regulator and parliament examined whether they had grounds to target figures involved in the PwC scandal including the firm’s former boss, Luke Sayers, after a parliamentary committee in 2024 found his testimony implausible.

Documents released under Freedom of Information laws to The Australian reveal the Australian Securities and Investments Commission met with two senior Australian Taxation Office figures in a bid to understand how they might approach Mr Sayers.

ASIC met with ATO second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn on May 2 last year alongside assistant commissioner Nick Shizas, the ATO’s former general counsel, to discuss PwC Australia.

This came in the wake of ASIC’s ban of PwC former head of international tax Peter Collins on October 20, 2023, sidelining the senior partner for eight years from the financial services industry, after he leaked confidential government information. ASIC found Mr Collins was not a fit and proper person and considered whether such a finding could be made against Mr Sayers.

The regulator had limited opportunities to engage on the PwC scandal, given professional partnerships sit beyond the laws enforced by ASIC.

Notes prepared documenting the meeting between the ATO and ASIC enforcement and compliance senior executive leader Melissa Smith reveal the two regulators were keenly interested in the evidence provided by Mr Sayers to parliamentary inquiries into the PwC scandal.

Mr Sayers, president of the Carlton Football Club until January, appeared before the Senate’s Finance and Public Administration Committee as well as the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, both of which scrutinised PwC’s tax leaks. The Senate committee concluded Mr Sayers’ evidence was “implausible”.

The report noted his assertions that he did not recall and had no knowledge of evidence from the ATO that issues around PwC’s tax practice had been raised with him in a 2019 meeting were highly doubtful.

Mr Sayers told parliament he did not review documents Mr Hirschhorn directed him to look at after their 2019 meeting. He also told parliament he could not recall being told Mr Collins had breached confidentiality or that the ATO was keenly interested in the issue of confidentiality.

Former PwC general counsel Meredith Beattie.

This is despite PwC former general counsel Meredith Beattie telling parliament the firm knew all too well it was in the ATO’s firing line over confidentiality breaches tied to tax schemes marketed by Mr Collins and other partners.

Ms Beattie told parliament former PwC CEO Tom Seymour, then head of its tax practice, had been alerted to the ATO’s interest in confidentiality issues. Mr Seymour has denied this.

Ms Beattie provided a detailed email – written after a phone call with Mr Sayers – to parliament as evidence seemingly contradicting his statements to the committee.

Records revealed under FOI show ASIC was directed by the ATO to look at questions on notice published by the Senate for proof of alleged discrepancies in Mr Sayers’ evidence.

“Sayers’ testimony is very carefully expressed. He says (and is accurate) about his recollection of a conversation about the use of LPP (legal professional privilege) and promoter behaviour,” Ms Smith wrote in her notes. “However, his testimony is less reliable on other aspects of the meeting, eg, the discussion of the commercialisation of MAAL (multinational anti-avoidance laws).”

Ms Smith also said Mr Hirschhorn told ASIC if it were to commence action against Mr Sayers or another member of PwC, to demand copies of board minutes and performance reviews of staff.

She said Mr Hirschhorn told ASIC these documents were “interesting too”.

The ATO didn’t review the performance reviews, but Mr Hirschhorn, a former KPMG partner, was familiar with what they contained.

The Senate hearings have heard how some members of PwC took credit for the aggressive tax strategies enabled by Mr Collins’s confidentiality breaches.

Former PwC CEO Tom Seymour.

A spokesman for ASIC said the regulator had the power to investigate and take action against companies governed by the Corporations Act, not state-based partnership laws.

He refused to comment on whether ASIC would have taken action if a parliamentary committee had made findings against Mr Sayers.

“ASIC has the power to seek the banning of a person from carrying on a financial services business, including if ASIC does not consider them to be a ‘fit and proper person’ as defined by the Corporations Act,” he said.

“Subject to hearing from the individual, one factor ASIC would take into account in exercising that power is if the individual in question has had a serious finding made against them, such as by a court or parliament.”

The Australian understands politicians considered referring Mr Sayers to the Privileges Committee, including taking legal advice on the option.

Labor senator Deb O’Neill said parliament could see there were “irreconcilable differences between the evidence of former CEOs Luke Sayers and Tom Seymour, and other key witnesses”.

“The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services highlighted its concerns surrounding Mr Sayers’ evidence in its final report, indicating that his version of events seemed incomplete, unlikely, and incompatible with the evidence of multiple other witnesses,” Senator O’Neill said.

As previously revealed in The Australian’s Margin Call column, Mr Sayers was prepared for his parliamentary grilling by Arnold Bloch Leibler senior partner Leon Zwier and former Victorian Labor media adviser Sharon McCrohan.

Mr Sayers did not respond to questions from The Australian, however Mr Zwier later contacted the publication but refused to provide any official response.

Originally published as Corporate regulator evaluated grounds for targeting ex-PwC boss Luke Sayers amid tax scandal