The firm BF Borgers CPA PC and owner Benjamin F. Borgers were charged by the agency with “deliberate and systemic failures to comply with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) standards in its audits and reviews incorporated in more than 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through June 2023.”
The SEC in a statement on Friday morning said the respondents were also being charged with “falsely representing to their clients that the firm’s work would comply with PCAOB standards; fabricating audit documentation to make it appear that the firm’s work did comply with PCAOB standards; and falsely stating in audit reports included in more than 500 public company SEC filings that the firm’s audits complied with PCAOB standards.”
The firm agreed to settle the charges with a $12 million civil penalty while Mr. Borgers agreed to pay a $2 million civil penalty, according to the SEC, though the agency said the acceptance of a consent order did not amount to “admitting or denying” each of the findings.
“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.
