Mazars has been fined over a botched audit of a market-traded company’s financial statements by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC).
Owing to “wide-ranging failures in respect of the audit”, the professional services firm was dealt a £90,000 fine, reduced to £72,000 due to its cooperation with the FRC.
“The most significant failing was in respect of the incorrect classification of convertible loan notes,” the FRC said in a statement.
This resulted “in a material misstatement which was not identified by Mazars until after the audit was completed and demonstrated a lack of quality control”, the regulator added.
“Other areas of concern included the way in which bonus payments were addressed.”
Mazars had faced scrutiny from the FRC in July, with the regulator having called out the company and its rival BDO Global on “unacceptable” shortcomings in their audits.