BF Borgers, the impartial accounting agency for Trump Media & Expertise 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 can pay a $2 million civil penalty.
Neither the SEC assertion nor its criticism talked about Trump Media & Expertise Group, which didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Borgers additionally did not reply to a request for remark.
The SEC charged Borgers with “deliberate and systemic failures” in complying with accounting requirements in 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 by 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 trade.
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, regardless that 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 not less than 75% of the filings that included Borgers’ audits and opinions failed to satisfy PCAOB requirements.
“Ben Borgers and his audit agency, BF Borgers, have 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, “On account of their fraudulent conduct, they not solely put buyers and markets in danger by inflicting public firms to include noncompliant audits and opinions into greater than 1,500 filings with the Fee, but additionally undermined belief and confidence in our markets.”
