Monetary regulators completely banned the accounting agency that the mum or dad firm of Donald Trump’s media platform employed in an enforcement motion after an investigation revealed that the agency wasn’t actually conducting audits and as a substitute simply pasted outdated work into new papers and cast the date. The investigation outcomes didn’t embrace work carried out for the Republican presidential candidate’s Trump Media and Expertise Group.
In line with the SEC’s probe, the Lakewood, Colorado accounting agency BF Borgers and its namesake proprietor Benjamin F. Borgers didn’t correctly audit and monitor public firms’ monetary filings, leading to a widespread “deliberate and systematic failure” of the general public accounting agency. Regulators uncovered that Borgers himself informed audit workers they may copy earlier workpapers from previous audits and paste them in as ultimate audit workpapers for brand new consumer engagements. The SEC mentioned the workers, in response, up to date the stability sheet dates and dates of completion of the work papers however all the opposite info was replicated from a earlier audit or quarterly assessment. Borgers additionally falsely documented nonexistent work by claiming to be assembly with engagement companions for conferences to debate potential dangers from an audit.
“Ben Borgers and his audit agency, BF Borgers, have been answerable for one of many largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our monetary markets,” mentioned Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “As a result of traders depend on the audited monetary statements of public firms when making their funding choices, the accountants and accounting corporations that audit these statements play a essential position in our monetary markets. Borgers and his agency fully deserted that position, however due to the painstaking work of the SEC workers, Borgers and his sham audit mill have been completely shut down.”
Regulators mentioned Borgers, as engagement associate, was purported to assessment or supervise audit work. As a substitute, there have been zero planning conferences held and “Borgers not often interacted with the workers stage auditors.” The SEC mentioned Borgers’ falsified workpapers have been meant to “create the phantasm” that the agency’s audit engagements complied with public accounting requirements, whereas they knew the stories have been fraudulent.
In response to the SEC’s ban, Trump Media fired Borgers and employed Semple, Marchal & Cooper, LLP a Phoenix, Ariz.-based accounting agency. In line with a 2018 PCAOB report, the agency had a single workplace with three issuer audit purchasers, six companions and 13 skilled workers members. Trump Media has a market cap of $6.7 billion.
