‘Ruined’ career earns £8.8m in damages
A WHISTLEBLOWER whose career was “ruined” after he raised concerns about an “unethical” audit of a Dubai gold refiner by his former employers EY has been awarded around £8.8m in damages.
Amjad Rihan brought a claim at the High Court in London against four businesses within the network of the global accountancy firm, formerly known as Ernst and Young.
He had to leave Dubai with his family and claimed he was forced to resign after flagging serious irregularities in dealings by EY’s client, Kaloti Jewellery International.
In a ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Kerr concluded EY owed an “audit duty of care” to Mr Rihan and breached that duty in a number of ways.
In a statement after the judgment, Mr Rihan said: “Almost seven years of agony for me and my family has come to an end with a total vindication by the court.
“My life was turned upside down as I was cruelly and harshly punished for insisting on doing my job ethically, professionally and lawfully in relation to the gold audits in Dubai.”
He added: “I hope that EY uses this judgment as an opportunity to improve and take the necessary measures to avoid anything like this ever happening again.”
The judge said Mr Rihan worked for EY in the Middle East from 2008 until his resignation in January 2014.
Mr Rihan’s case was that, in 2013 during an early stage of the audit, he became aware of serious irregularities – including gold bullion smuggled out of Morocco coated in silver, to avoid restrictions on the export of gold by deceiving the Moroccan authorities, and cash transactions in gold involving about 5.2 billion US dollars.
The judge said both issues “gave rise to a reasonable suspicion” that Kaloti was involved in money laundering.
EY denied any responsibility for what happened. Lawyers for EY also claimed he was a “liar and an opportunist” who was motivated by a “thirst for publicity and fame in pursuit of compensation”.
EY said it will appeal against the ruling and was “surprised and disappointed” by the judge’s decision, which it said introduced an “unprecedented legal duty”, and by the financial award to Mr Rihan.