EY Trips Over SEC Ethics Rules with Contingent Fee (1)

Three Ernst & Young LLP tax leaders and a former corporate tax director for Cintas Corp. were sanctioned Friday for violating the SEC’s conflict of interest rules.

All four agreed to one- to two-year professional bars with monetary penalties assessed, according to four orders the Securities and Exchange Commission released late Friday.

• EY billed Cintas, an audit client, based on a percentage of the tax credits and incentives the company received through EY’s tax work for a decade starting in 2009, according to the order. CPA firms are prohibited from performing services for their audit clients if they ...