Belfast KPMG partners retire over UK tax investigation

Four partners located in the Belfast office of KPMG, who have been subject to an investigation by the UK Revenue , have now retired following a period of administrative leave, the firm has announced.

The firm said it had “ co-operated fully with the HMRC investigation which relates solely to the personal affairs of the four individuals and is not related to the firm’s business or the business of its clients.” It also announced a new management team for its Belfast office.

The four senior KPMG partners , arrested in Northern Ireland last November, were questioned over allegations of tax evasion and their involvement with a company set up to finance property development on both sides of the border.

The finances and tax arrangements of Jeap, a company owned by the four men that backed proposed property developments in areas such as Meath, Monaghan and Donegal, is thought to have formed a central part of the investigation.

The four partners are Jon D’Arcy, head of audit and transactions for KPMG in the north, Eamonn Donaghy, who heads the Belfast tax practice, Paul Hollway, head of corporate finance and Arthur O’Brien, an audit and advisory partner.

Mr Donaghy also chairs Grow NI, which has been pressuring the British government to lower the corporation tax in Northern Ireland.

The partners went on administrative leave from KPMG after the investigation came to light.

Jeap was set up by the four partners in 2005 while the property boom was in full swing, with each owning 25 per cent. Its most recent set of accounts, abridged statements for the year to the end of March 2014, show it had racked up losses of £4.3 million. It had just £391 cash in the bank. Sources believe that among the areas of likely questioning to the four KPMG partners will have been how losses accrued by Jeap were offset against tax.

KPMG has announced a new management team in Belfast, headed by John Hansen. A new Advisory Board has been established to assist the management team, chaired by Shaun Kelly, the global COO of KPMG International.