Springfield News-Sun

Trump Media’s new auditing firm busted for ‘massive fraud’

- By David Hamilton

SAN FRANCISCO — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged an auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group just over a month 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, with “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.

To settle the SEC charges, BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million fine while its owner agreed to pay a fine of $2 million, according to the SEC. Benjamin Borgers did not immediatel­y return a call seeking comment.

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

Trump Media named BF Borgers as its auditor on March 28, according to the company’s most recent annual report filing. The company disclosed at the time that BF 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 in July 2023 and another that was terminated by the board in March, just as it was re-hiring BF Borgers.

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 passing it off as current documentat­ion. That fake documentat­ion “falsely represente­d” that both Benjamin Borgers and another reviewer had approved the audit work.

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