Ernst & Young, a UK audit firm, was fined £4.9 million (6.3 million euros) by the Financial Reporting Council for “serious breaches” in its audits of the collapsed travel company Thomas Cook. The company’s partner Richard Wilson, responsible for the 2017 and 2018 audits, was fined £105,000.
Thomas Cook, facing financial struggles due to online competition and Brexit uncertainty, went bankrupt in September 2019 after failing to secure £250 million from investors. The 178-year-old company’s downfall resulted in 22,000 job losses globally and a massive repatriation effort by the UK government to bring back 150,000 Britons.
Despite the audits’ failures to detect financial misstatements, the watchdog clarified that the breaches were not intentional. EY expressed regret for the substandard audits and emphasized their commitment to providing high-quality services.
After being purchased by Chinese conglomerate Fosun in 2019 and later resold to the Polish group eSky in 2024, Thomas Cook was relaunched as an online travel agency.
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