BF Borgers, the unbiased accounting agency for Trump Media & Expertise Group, is dealing with allegations of “large fraud” from the Securities and Trade Fee, which on Friday claimed the auditor ran a “sham audit mill” that put traders in danger.
The SEC stated Borgers has been shut down, noting that the corporate agreed to a everlasting suspension from showing and practising 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 grievance talked about Trump Media & Expertise Group. Borgers did not reply to a request for remark.
In an e mail, Trump Media stated it “appears ahead to working with new auditing companions in accordance with at present’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 way of June 2023, a interval throughout which Borgers had about 350 purchasers. Trump Media’s March debut as a public firm got here after that point interval, however the social media firm stated 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 accepted Borgers to audit its 2023 and 2022 monetary statements.
Among the many points cited by the SEC is that Borgers did not adjust to Public Firm Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) requirements in its audits, despite the fact that the regulatory company requires that public firms’ monetary statements meet these requirements. Borgers additionally allegedly falsely advised purchasers that its work would adjust to these requirements.
The company claims that at the very least 75% of the filings that included Borgers’ audits and evaluations failed to fulfill PCAOB requirements.
“Ben Borgers and his audit agency, BF Borgers, had been accountable for one of many largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our monetary markets,” Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, stated within the assertion.
He added, “On account of their fraudulent conduct, they not solely put traders and markets in danger by inflicting public firms to include noncompliant audits and evaluations into greater than 1,500 filings with the Fee, but in addition undermined belief and confidence in our markets.”
