Chairman-elect Michael Ebeid admits he was ‘wrong on every level’ in apology to Senator O’Neill
Updated ,first published
KPMG’s chairman-elect Michael Ebeid has issued a grovelling apology to Labor senator Deborah O’Neill over his emails claiming her speech, which brought whistleblower allegations against the firm to light, contained “completely false” information.
Ebeid, who has essentially been functioning as the chairman of the firm that is trying to recover from its top executives’ misuse of clients’ confidential audit documents, needs approval from KPMG partners to formally take up the role. That vote ends on Wednesday.
Documents released by O’Neill’s parliamentary committee on Monday contained Ebeid’s personal apology for an email he sent early in the saga, which began this year, undermining the whistleblower’s claims.
“What I wrote was wrong,” Ebeid told O’Neill in one document. “I described statements about the whistleblower’s allegations made by you to the Senate as false. I described the firm’s process as thorough. Events since have shown that neither was true, and that the concerns you raised on the whistleblower’s behalf have helped uncover serious wrongdoing and I can only thank you for that.”
He said he thought he was being helpful, based on his knowledge at the time. “However, with what I know now, my email was naive, embarrassing and wrong on every level,” Ebeid wrote.
But the bigger issue for the embattled firm was the committee’s decision to release documents KPMG had battled to keep hidden under claims of legal professional privilege. The committee said it was in the public interest to release these documents ahead of another public grilling this Friday.
The legal documents were the reports from two law firms, Allens and Ashurst, and relate to their work on the whistleblower complaints. KPMG had initially used the reports from the law firms to claim that the whistleblower’s complaints were unsubstantiated while refusing to release the actual documents publicly.
A fresh investigation by Allens has led to a purge of KPMG’s most senior people as some of the most serious allegations have now been substantiated.
“The Ashurst and Allens processes were central to the claim that KPMG had undertaken comprehensive internal and external investigations prior to the speech given by Senator Deborah O’Neill on 24 March 2026,” the committee – chaired by O’Neill – said in a statement.
It said the committee had found there was a “compelling public interest” in examining the results of the law firms’ investigations at its next hearing, allowing it to publish the previously legally privileged documents.
Since May, the firm has lost its chief executive Andrew Yates, chairman Martin Sheppard, and sacked former chief operating officer Eileen Hoggett after she lied about accessing sensitive board documents from client Lendlease and stored copies in her work locker.
KPMG audit partner Kim Lawry also resigned from her senior roles this month after Westpac requested that she be removed from its audit “to ensure there is no distraction”.
KPMG independent board member Patty Akopiantz quietly left the firm’s regional board last month, following former NSW premier Mike Baird’s exit in September, and fellow independent director Jane Hemstritch is expected to resign once replacements have been found.
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Colin Kruger is a senior business reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.