A former KPMG LLP partner admitted passing on stock tips about clients to a friend who gave him cash and gifts, in a scandal that led the big accounting firm to resign as auditor for two companies.

Scott London, the partner in charge of audits of Herbalife Ltd. and Skechers USA Inc. until KPMG fired him last week, told The Wall Street Journal Tuesday that "I regret my actions in leaking nonpublic data to a third party."

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