All posts tagged: auditor

Trump Media hires new auditor after accounting firm charged with fraud

Trump Media hires new auditor after accounting firm charged with fraud

Published by skeptic

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images Trump Media hired a new auditor over the weekend, after its previous public accounting firm was accused Friday of perpetrating a massive fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Truth Social owner fired BF Borgers CPA after the SEC accused the firm of failing to perform actual audits of its clients, before signing off on more than 1,500 regulatory filings for public companies. Trump Media said it had engaged Semple, Marchal & Cooper LLP on Saturday to replace BF Borgers. As part of its settlement with the regulator, BF Borgers and its owner agreed to a permanent ban from auditing public companies. The ban required Trump Media and other public companies that had used BF Borgers to find new auditors. “The decision to change independent registered public accounting firms was made with the recommendation and approval of the Audit Committee of the Company,” Trump Media said Monday in an 8-K filing to announce its new auditor. Former President Donald Trump owns 65% of Trump Media’s stock, which …

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud,’ permanently barred from public company audits

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud,’ permanently barred from public company audits

Published by skeptic

Rafael Henrique | Lightrocket | Getty Images The auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditor’s owner were charged Friday with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission for work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced. The auditor, BF Borgers CPA and its owner Benjamin Borgers have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, with admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said. The agency, calling BF Borgers a “sham audit mill,” said the company and its owner engaged in “deliberate and systemic failures to comply with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board … standards in its audits and reviews incorporated in more than 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through June 2023,” according to a press release. The respondents also were charged with falsely telling clients that the auditor’s work would comply with PCAOB standards, fabricating audit documents to make it seem that the work did comply with those standards, and “falsely …

The “Auditor” of “Truth Social” Misspelled His Own Name 14 Different Ways in Filings

The “Auditor” of “Truth Social” Misspelled His Own Name 14 Different Ways in Filings

Published by skeptic

Only the best people. Speling Is Hard The head of the accounting firm in charge of keeping track of the former president’s Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns the far-right social media platform Truth Social, is astonishingly bad at typing out his own name. As the Financial Times reports, Ben F Borgers, whose accountancy firm was hired by TMTG in 2022, misspelled his name 14 different ways in filings with the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) — including “Ben F Brogers,” “Blake F Borgers,” “Ben F Vonesh,” and “Ben F orgers.” Worse yet, the firm already has a lengthy track record of failing to meet regulatory standards, which given the nature of Trump’s flailing attempt at a social network probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody. Better Call Ben But at least you’d expect Borgers to be able to spell his own name. “If multiple names are due to careless mistakes and lack of attention, then how can we trust him concerning his attention to the audits that he has to …

Trump Media auditor warns losses raise doubt about company

Trump Media auditor warns losses raise doubt about company

Published by skeptic

An auditor has raised doubts about the ability of former President Donald Trump’s publicly traded company to stay in business, according to a new regulatory filing. Trump Media and Technology Group, which operates the Truth Social platform, reported it lost $58.2 million in 2023 while generating total revenues of $4.1 million, according to the Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trump Media listed its largest expense for the year as interest payments totaling more than $39 million. The filing includes a note from an independent accounting firm, Colorado-based BF Borgers CPA PC, warning that Trump Media’s “operating losses raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” The firm has worked with Trump Media since 2022. The note is dated March 25, the day before Trump’s company started trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol DJT, surging at first and earning comparisons to so-called meme stocks. Shares of the company fell more than 21% to $48.66 on Monday. Its market value stood at more than $6.5 billion. A …

India ordered an investigation into Byju’s days before auditor and board members resigned, report says

India ordered an investigation into Byju’s days before auditor and board members resigned, report says

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India’s corporate affairs ministry ordered an investigation into edtech startup Byju’s last week, television news channel CNBC-TV18 reported Friday, further complicating matters at the most Indian valuable startup that lost both its auditor and three board members on Thursday. The ministry has taken cognizance of “various corporate governance lapses” at Byju’s, the television channel reported, citing unnamed sources. The new probe follows the ministry asking Byju’s last year to explain why it hadn’t filed its audited financials. In late April, India’s crime-fighting agency searched three premises of edtech giant Byju’s and its founder Byju Raveendran, it said Saturday, and seized various “incriminating” documents and digital data. Byju’s attracted intense scrutiny last year from the government, investors and creditors after it repeatedly failed to publish its accounts. In September, Byju’s finally published its accounts for the year ending March 2021, revealing revenue figures that fell short of its own projections. Global giant Deloitte quit as the auditor of Byju’s and three board members resigned from the most valuable Indian startup on Thursday, sending a shockwave through the industry. In a …