The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday charged Trump Media & Technology Group’s independent accounting firm BF Borgers with fraud, accusing the firm of operating a “sham audit mill,” CNN reports.
According to a press release from the SEC, “BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million civil penalty” for “deliberate and systemic failures to comply with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) standards in its audits.”
Per the SEC press release, “Borders and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down.”
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“Ben Borgers and his audit firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our financial markets,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “As a result of their fraudulent conduct, they not only put investors and markets at risk by causing public companies to incorporate noncompliant audits and reviews into more than 1,500 filings with the Commission, but also undermined trust and confidence in our markets. Because investors rely on the audited financial statements of public companies when making their investment decisions, the accountants and accounting firms that audit those statements play a critical role in our financial markets. Borgers and his firm completely abandoned that role, but thanks to the painstaking work of the SEC staff, Borgers and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down.”
Trump Media, which owns Trump’s Twitter-style social media company Truth Social, was not accused of wrongdoing.
Public companies that have hired BF Borgers will need to find new accounting firms, the SEC alerted companies in a separate statement on Friday. Trump Media announced plans to do just that. “Trump Media looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with today’s SEC order,” Trump Media spokesperson Shannon Devine told CNN in a statement.
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Read the SEC press release here.