On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges of widespread fraud against BF Borgers, the independent accounting firm for Trump Media & Technology Group, accusing the firm of operating as a “sham audit mill.”
No accusations have been made against Trump Media (DJT), the owner of Truth Social, by the SEC in this matter.
The SEC has identified “deliberate and systemic failures” at BF Borgers, noting the firm fabricated audit documents and misled clients about adhering to proper accounting standards.
This fraudulent activity, described by the agency as “massive,” spanned from January 2021 through June 2023. It affected over 1,500 filings with the SEC and involved more than 500 publicly traded companies.
“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, in a press release. “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.”
As a result of these charges, BF Borgers has been barred from practicing as certified accountants before the SEC indefinitely, effective immediately. Additionally, the firm and its principal, Benjamin Borgers, will pay fines totaling $14 million.
Following the SEC’s announcement, public companies previously audited by BF Borgers have been advised to seek new accounting services, per a separate statement issued by the SEC.
In response to the SEC’s actions, Trump Media has begun looking for new auditing partners. “Trump Media looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with today’s SEC order,” said Shannon Devine, a spokesperson for Trump Media, in a statement to CNN.
Prior to its public listing in March, Trump Media employed Borgers as its independent registered accounting firm. The company’s audit committee confirmed Borgers as its accountant for public operations later that same month.
Despite its high-profile association with Trump Media, BF Borgers served 350 clients subject to SEC regulations during the period in question.
The SEC’s review focused only on the public companies; thus, its scrutiny did not extend to BF Borgers’ activities while Trump Media was still a private entity.
Chaired by former President Donald Trump, who also frequently uses Truth Social, Trump Media is known for its significant market valuation, which exceeds $9 billion., despite the company’s minimal revenue streams.
ruth Social has a relatively small user base compared to other social media platforms, with a reported average daily active user count of 113,000 in the U.S. for April, a decrease of 19% from the previous year, per data from Similarweb. In comparison, X (formerly Twitter) boasts over 300 times the number of users.
According to the SEC, an audit of 369 public company clients of BF Borgers revealed that at least 75% of them failed to meet accounting standards.
BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers have faced regulatory issues before. Since 2019, Colorado regulators have initiated multiple disciplinary actions against them.
The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants expelled BF Borgers from its peer review program last year, citing extremely poor performance that could not be remedied through educational or corrective measures.
In late March, Trump Media declared BF Borgers would handle its public accounting needs.
The post Accounting Firm Behind Trump Media Charged With ‘Massive Fraud’ appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Nicholas Dolinger
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://resistthemainstream.org and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.