BF Borgers, the impartial accounting agency for Trump Media & Know-how Group, is going through allegations of “large fraud” from the Securities and Trade Fee, which on Friday claimed the auditor ran a “sham audit mill” that put buyers in danger.
The SEC mentioned Borgers has been shut down, noting that the corporate agreed to a everlasting suspension from showing and working towards earlier than the company as accountants. The suspension is efficient instantly. Moreover, BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million civil penalty, whereas proprietor Benjamin Borgers pays a $2 million civil penalty.
Neither the SEC assertion nor its criticism talked about Trump Media & Know-how Group. Borgers did not reply to a request for remark.
In an electronic mail, Trump Media mentioned it “appears ahead to working with new auditing companions in accordance with at this time’s SEC order.”
The SEC charged Borgers with “deliberate and systemic failures” in complying with accounting requirements in 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 by means of June 2023, a interval throughout which Borgers had about 350 shoppers. Trump Media’s March debut as a public firm got here after that point interval, however the social media firm mentioned in its 2023 annual report that it had labored with Borgers previous to going public on the Nasdaq inventory alternate.
In its report, the corporate added that an audit committee on March 28 authorised Borgers to audit its 2023 and 2022 monetary statements.
Among the many points cited by the SEC is that Borgers didn’t adjust to Public Firm Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) requirements in its audits, although the regulatory company requires that public firms’ monetary statements meet these requirements. Borgers additionally allegedly falsely advised shoppers that its work would adjust to these requirements.
The company claims that at the very least 75% of the filings that integrated Borgers’ audits and critiques failed to satisfy PCAOB requirements.
“Ben Borgers and his audit agency, BF Borgers, had been chargeable for one of many largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our monetary markets,” Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, mentioned within the assertion.
He added, “Because of their fraudulent conduct, they not solely put buyers and markets in danger by inflicting public firms to include noncompliant audits and critiques into greater than 1,500 filings with the Fee, but in addition undermined belief and confidence in our markets.”
