Brothers who allegedly accessed Anthony Albanese’s bank account lie low in high-security Marrickville home

The two young men who allegedly accessed Anthony Albanese’s personal banking information are keeping a low profile at their home in Sydney’s inner west. Phillip Issa, 25, and Paul Issa, 21, would not answer the door when NewsWire attempted to speak with them on Wednesday, instead opting to lock down their fortress-like dual-address home in Marrickville. The pair, who allegedly accessed the Prime Minister’s confidential banking information while one of them was at EY graduate, appeared to film a reporter through their front window before flicking the switch on an automatic metal-reinforced shutter at the front of the property. The reporter made repeated unsuccessful requests to speak with one of the occupants of the home. Mr Albanese said it was “appropriate” charges had been laid after the young men were sacked over the alleged incident. He refused to “go into the detail” on Wednesday because the case was before court but said it was “a serious issue”. “Accessing anyone’s privacy, any Australian’s privacy is alarming, let alone someone from a contractor who’s not an employee of Commonwealth Bank being able to access that information,” Mr Albanese told the ABC’s News Breakfast. He said his government would “continue to examine” the conduct of major consulting firms, such as EY. “The behaviour of some of these big accounting firms has been completely unacceptable,” Mr Albanese said. “In some cases, it has involved breaches of the law, and they need to be held to account, if you’ll excuse the pun, because they simply have engaged in behaviour that’s not consistent with Australian law or consistent with the way that people would expect big corporations to operate.” The brothers allegedly accessed restricted personal banking data belonging to a federal parliamentarian, an Australian Federal Police spokesperson said on Tuesday. Both were charged with one count of unauthorised access/modification of restricted data, with court documents seen by NewsWire alleging they knew “the access was unauthorised”. The younger of the two was also hit with an additional charge of using a carriage service to publish the personal data of one or more persons that a reasonable person would find menacing or harassing. NewsWire understands one of the men is a former employee at EY, while the other has never worked at the company. It is unclear which of the men formerly worked at the accounting firm. EY has declined to comment. Their matters were briefly mentioned in the Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday when an adjournment was made to August 25. The men remain on bail. Government vows ‘consequences’ Mr Albanese’s comments on Wednesday coincided with the release of a consultation paper to “strengthen accountability and improve the conduct of accounting, auditing and consulting firms in Australia”, according to Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Dan Mulino. “Integrity in our markets matters, because when people trust the system, they are more willing to invest, innovate and plan for their future,” Mr Mulino said, adding that “confidence underpins a strong economy for everyone”. “In recent years, we have seen behaviour from some large accounting, auditing and consulting firms in Australia that is not fair and honest. “This has undermined trust in the firms themselves and raised broader questions about the resilience of the frameworks meant to uphold market integrity.” He said the consultation paper would focus on “dealing with conflicts of interest in multidisciplinary firms with audit and non‑audit functions” – the core of the executive-toppling scandal engulfing KPMG. Other aims included “partnership limits for large accounting firms” and audit surveillance. “It is time to return trust and integrity so that the government, taxpayers and other businesses can rely on the services of large accounting, auditing and consulting firms,” Mr Mulino.