PwC used to be called Price Waterhouse Coopers and is one of the four biggest accounting groups in the world. They are trusted by big business and governments with their confidential financial and commercial information but an outrageous leak of tax inside knowledge from Treasury could see some elite bean counters in the clink!

This has been a brewing news story amplified by the AFR and starts with PwC’s former head of international tax, Peter Collins, of whom Treasury’s boss Steve Kennedy says “…improperly used confidential Commonwealth information”.

Having someone accused of being a bad apple is a problem for an auguste trusted body such as PwC, but then the claim that others in the firm used this inside information makes the misadventure a disaster of criminal proportions.

That’s why the Australian Federal Police has been called in and it indicates that the Albanese government will tighten rules and regulations around suppliers. Also, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said he will give the Tax Practitioners Board, which identified the bad behaviour, more resources to effectively be a better accountancy cop.

Apart from some accountants possibly facing jail, there’s a growing group of politicians who want to ban PwC from winning Government contracts. The AFR says that last year PwC won $537 million in contracts from Canberra!

Other pollies want all concerned who knew this confidential information to be publicly named and shamed. These people were identified in the 144 pages of emails between PwC Australia and PwC Global.

The magnitude of the crime starts with this revelation in the AFR that showed 14 clients sidestepped “…new multinational tax avoidance laws in 2016,” and PwC charged fees worth $2.5 million in the process.

It makes you wonder how much tax the clients saved!

The scandal has seen PwC’s former CEO Tom Seymour and two other partners retire early, and former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski is to review PwC’s governance accountability and culture.

Headlines such as “PwC’s brand collapses” and “Inside story of PwC’s tax scandal” not only shows how running away from the truth is a business killer, it also makes it very probable that a few accountants could be lucky to avoid jail and/or a huge ‘make good’ fine.