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EY feels heat in £2.7bn legal claim over audits
The Observer
|May 25, 2025
In an added twist in the ongoing court case, Sheikh Mansour has been linked to the collapsed company NMC Health, writes
On Wednesday, in a quiet corner of the Rolls Building judicial courts, the former chairman of EY UK and Ireland was spotted huddled with colleagues, taking a break from the trial next door.
So what? Hywel Ball stood down last month and has no personal role in the case concerned, but he's watching carefully. The Big Four firm he has chaired for the past five years is facing a £2.7bn legal claim that it oversaw a "fundamentally flawed" audit of a FTSE 100 company.
NMC Health, a private healthcare firm listed in London but headquartered in the UAE, collapsed in scandal in 2020 after a short-seller questioned its accounting. A subsequent investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority found it had understated its debts by as much as $4bn.
In an added twist, EY's lawyers last week claimed that Sheikh Mansour, the deputy prime minister of the UAE and owner of Manchester City, was "effectively a shadow owner".
This story is from the May 25, 2025 edition of The Observer.
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