EY under the spotlight
A former longtime partner at Ernst & Young has launched a lawsuit accusing his ex-firm of “knowingly providing audit and compliance services to gambling clients” with alleged criminal ties.
jailed junket billionaire Alvin Chau
One of those links, according to 35-year ex-EY employee Joe Howie, leads to Macau’s jailed junket billionaire Alvin Chau.
Reports cite Howie as stating he discovered systemic failures across the accounting giant’s global operations between 2017 to 2024.
In his whistleblower lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Howie claims EY provided services to a group of casino firms allegedly linked to a $100bn illegal transnational crime network.
Howie claims EY issued clean audits for this client group, despite their alleged links to convicted felons Alvin Chau and Levo Chan.
E&Y accused of retaliation
The plaintiff also accused his ex-employers of taking retaliatory action against him after he informed the firm’s management of the alleged international and federal securities law violations EY was abetting.
Reports state Howie tried to force his firm into compliance.
Howie’s suit claims that for pursuing “protected whistleblower activities,” EY’s reaction to strip him of his job roles, fire him, and force him to accept early retirement benefits violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
committing discreditable acts of professional misconduct”
Hence the suit, in which the Howie’s attorneys cited his findings as concluding the firm “was facilitating activity in violation of professional standards, committing discreditable acts of professional misconduct, and potentially committing violations of law.”
A leading iGaming media firm cited an EY spokesperson as refuting Howie’s claim. The spokesperson said the claim lacked merit “and we wholly disagree with Mr. Howie’s characterisation of events.”
Chau angle
Howie claims EY allowed the filings from US-listed casino operators tied to Chinese organized crime families “to include misleading statements about financial controls, AML safeguards and regulatory compliance.”
The group collectively referred to in the complaint as the “Casino group registrants” allegedly have ties to Chan and Chau, who Macau’s court in 2023 found guilty of 103 crimes, including illegal gambling, and sentenced him to 18 years in prison.
Howie claims EY “could not reasonably ensure that its fees were not paid with proceeds from illegal activities” and that the accounting giant’s actions left it potentially liable under federal AML laws.
