The UK’s financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched an investigation into Grant Thornton UK’s audits of Patisserie Valerie’s parent company, Patisserie Holdings.
The FRC has commenced an investigation into the audits of Patisserie Holdings financial statements for the years ended 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Patisserie Valerie’s former CFO Chris Marsh was arrested for fraud on 11 October following the discovery of accounting irregularities which were reported to be in the region of £20m ($26.4m).
The regulator has launched an investigation into Marsh over his preparation and approval of the company’s financial statements and other financial information.
When the accounting regularities were discovered the company’s directors said that without an immediate cash injection there was ‘no scope for the business to continue trading in its current form’.
In the following days, the company’s chairman Luke Johnson loaned the company £20m of his own money to keep the company afloat.
A spokesperson for Grant Thornton said the firm will ‘fully cooperate’ with the investigation.
Earlier this week, Grant Thornton appointed Dave Dunckley as its new CEO following the departure of Sacha Romanovitch in October.
