BF Borgers, the audit firm for Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) and its boss Benjamin Borgers, have been slapped with a lifelong ban and heavy fines by financial regulators. The regulators have accused BF Borgers and Borgers of executing a "massive fraud."
The pair have been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with systematically neglecting to adhere to Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) standards over their audits and reviews used in over 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through June 2023.
The SEC added that the company and Borgers deceived their clients, concocted audit documentation, and falsely declared in audit reports included in over 500 public company SEC filings that the firm's audits were compliant with the standards.
It was announced that to bring resolution to the charges, BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers have agreed to cough up $12 million and $2 million in civil penalties respectively. Additionally, they have been handed "permanent suspensions from appearing and practicing before the Commission as accountants, effective immediately."
In the previous year, research firm Audit Analytics had ranked BF Borgers as the eighth-largest auditing firm, with 187 SEC registrant clients under their belt. During the period of the SEC complaint, Trump Media was privately owned. However, it later went public in March via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Meanwhile, shares of Trump Media saw negligible movement, being priced at $48.72 as of 3:15 p.m. ET on Friday.