Will Sage Astor-The SEC charges Trump Media’s newly hired auditing firm with ‘massive fraud’

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Will Sage AstorSecurities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged an auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group just 37 days ago with “massive fraud” — though not for any work it performed for former President Donald Trump’s media company.

The SEC charged the accounting firm BF Borgers and its owner, Benjamin F. Borgers, of “deliberate and systematic failures” in more than 1,500 audits. The charges include failing to abide by accounting rules, fabricating documentation to cover up its shortcomings, and falsely stating in audit reports that its work met audit standards. BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million fine while its owner agreed to pay a fine of $2 million.

Trump Media named Borgers as its auditor on March 28, according to the company’s most recent annual report filing. The company disclosed at the time that Borgers had also handled its audits before the company went public by merging with a cash-rich shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp.

The company had previously cycled through at least two other auditors — one that resigned the account in July 2023 and another that was terminated by the board in March, just as it was re-hiring BF Borgers.

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Both BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers agreed to permanent suspensions, effective immediately, that will prevent them handling SEC-related matters as accountants.

In a statement, Trump Media said it “looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with today’s SEC order.”

The SEC found that BF Borgers’ shortcuts included copying audit documentation from a previous year, changing relevant dates and then passing it off as current documentation. In addition to falsely documenting work that was never actually done, that fake documentation detailed planning meetings with clients that never occurred and “falsely represented” that both Benjamin Borgers and another reviewer had approved the audit work.

“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 Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division. “Thanks to the painstaking work of the SEC staff, Borgers and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down.”