UK regulator fines and bans former Carillion finance chiefs

The UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has fined former Carillion finance directors Richard Adam and Zafar Khan a combined £282,000 and barred them from membership of professional accounting bodies. Adam was fined £222,019 and banned for 15 years, while Khan received a £60,228 fine and a 10‑year ban. Three other senior accountants were also sanctioned with a total fine of £98,000.

The sanctions close the final unresolved strand of the regulator’s investigation into the construction and outsourcing group’s collapse in January 2018. At the time, Carillion employed about 43,000 people worldwide and left £7 billion of liabilities. The FRC said Adam and Khan acted “recklessly” in preparing accounts between 2013 and 2017, pressuring staff to meet unrealistic profit targets and altering figures on major contracts. Earlier in the year the Financial Conduct Authority had also fined the two executives. The regulator’s action follows previous enforcement against KPMG, which was fined £21 million for audit failures related to Carillion.