EY: Another big four accounting firm plunged into a corruption crisis after worker accesses Albanese’s account

Another big four accounting firm has been plunged into a corruption crisis, with an EY worker facing court on Tuesday after being accused of accessing Anthony Albanese’s private banking details.

Paul Issa, 21, was on secondment at Commonwealth Bank when he allegedly looked up the Prime Minister’s account.

He was charged by the Australian Federal Police, along with his brother, Phillip Issa, 25, who has no link to EY.

The Sydney brothers, whose family home in Marrickville is close to Mr Albanese’s former house, were given bail and appeared at Downing Centre Local Court. At the hearing their bail was continued until their next court appearance on August 25.

Paul Issa faces one count each of unauthorised access/modification of restricted data and using a carriage service to publish personal data to menace or harass. He is accused of spying on a senior EY executive’s accounts, as well as Mr Albanese’s.

Phillip Issa has been charged with a single count of unauthorised access/modification of restricted data.

According to Mr Albanese’s register of interests, the Prime Minister holds a Commonwealth savings account as well as a mortgage for a property on the Central Coast he jointly owns with his wife.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said any breaches of that kind were “incredibly concerning”.

“Not just in relation to the PM’s details but any Australians’ details,” he said.

EY, formerly known as Ernst & Young, declined to comment.

A spokesperson for Commonwealth Bank said “it is not appropriate for us to comment on individual contractor matters”.

The EY scandal comes as fellow accounting giant KPMG deals with the fallout from its own, much bigger, trust crisis.

KPMG chair Martin Sheppard last week became the latest casualty of a saga which began when a whistleblower complained that company had misused board papers from Lendlease to support bids for audit work.

The whistleblower’s concerns were played down by the company, and it wasn’t until Labor senator Deborah O’Neill aired the concerns under parliamentary privilege in March that KPMG cleaned house.

Mr Sheppard’s resignation followed the departure of chief executive Andrew Yates and audit partners Paul Rogers and Eileen Hoggett.

KPMG has launched an “action plan” that will include the appointment of the firm’s first independent chair, an overhaul of its governance and a review of its whistleblower program.

“We did not meet the standards expected of us, and we recognise the impact this has had on the whistleblower, our people, our clients and the community,” interim chief executive Stan Stavros said.

“Trust will only be rebuilt through sustained action and demonstrable change. We are determined to confront what went wrong, act transparently and ensure these failings are not repeated.”

The unfolding scandal comes three years after PwC was in the gun for misusing Federal Government information.

PwC Australia partner Peter Collins was advising bureaucrats on laws to stop multinational corporations from dodging tax.

Despite signing confidentiality agreements with the Australian Treasury between 2013 and 2018, he shared the information with PwC colleagues, who used the intelligence to help clients structure their operations in a way that avoided the laws Mr Collins was helping design.

Inquiries by Senators in May 2023 revealed that more than 50 PwC staff received the leaked information. The scandal triggered the resignation of PwC Australia chief executive Tom Seymour and sanctions against Mr Collins.