A critical report into the accounts of BHS can now be published by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) after Sir Philip Green's attempt to block it failed.
On Friday (29 June) the High Court denied the request made by Taveta, Sir Philip’s retail empire, to bring an injunction against the accounting regulator which would have prevented the report’s release pending the outcome of a judicial review.
The regulator is now free to publish the report on the 2014 pre-sale audit of BHS that contained "serious criticisms" of Taveta management.
The judge said: "The injunction is sought to restrain the publication of statements alleged to defame Taveta personnel pending Taveta's judicial review claim.
"Although I have found that the threatened publication does make criticisms of the Taveta personnel that are capable of being defamatory of them (and seriously so), such a threatened publication is not exceptional."
In June 2016 the FRC launched an official investigation into PwC's audit of BHS for the 2013/14 tax year after a preliminary inquiry found grounds for suspicion of misconduct.
BHS went into administration in April 2016, putting workers' retirement nest eggs at risk and The Pensions Regulator has conducted an investigation of the case.
In the end, a £363m settlement with Sir Philip Green was reached to fund a new independent pension scheme for 19,000 former BHS workers.
This gives future pensioners the option of the same starting pension as they were originally promised by BHS, and higher benefits than they would get from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
The Work and Pensions select committee, which produced a report on the sale of BHS in 2016, welcomed the court ruling.
Frank Field, the committee's chairman, said: "Mr Justice Nicklin needed much wisdom to make this judgment.
"The High Court has put aside the special pleading of a plaintiff whose financial resources are almost unlimited. In doing so, it has struck a judgment that such individuals have a very high test to meet if they are to succeed in gagging a regulator, whose report is of interest to so many citizens.
"We will be writing to the Insolvency Service to ask them to reopen their investigation into BHS’ former directors in light of the FRC’s findings."
Earlier this month, PwC was handed a record £6.5m fine from the FRC for its work auditing BHS before its sale for £1 in 2015.
The PWC partner who conducted the audit, Steve Denison, was also facing a fine of £325,000 and has been barred from audit work for 15 years.
The fines were reduced by 35 per cent, from £10m and £500,000 respectively due to early settlement.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
