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Trump Media’s stock price fell on Friday after its accountant was accused of “massive fraud.”
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Accountant BF Borgers did not comply with current accounting standards, the SEC said.
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Shares of the media company fell as much as 9% on Friday morning.
Shares of Trump Media plunged again Friday after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company’s accountant in a “massive fraud” that lasted more than two years, according to a new filing.
BF Borgers CPA PC, which audited Trump Media’s financials, had “willful and systematic failure to comply” with public company accounting standards, the regulator said.
The company and its owner, Benjamin Borgers, were accused of “falsely representing” to their clients that audits would comply with customary accounting standards, and of fabricating audit documents. These actions affected approximately 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through mid-2023, the SEC said. The order did not mention any specific customers.
BF Borgers settled the SEC charge by paying a $12 million fine, while Borgers, the owner, paid a separate $2 million fine. The company’s operations have permanently closed, with Borgers also agreeing to no longer appear and practice as an accountant.
“Ben Borgers and his accounting firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the biggest failures of gatekeepers in our financial markets,” Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement. “Because investors rely on the audited annual accounts of listed companies to make their investment decisions, the accountants and accounting firms that audit these annual accounts play a crucial role in our financial markets. Borgers and his office have completely abandoned that role, but thanks to the painstaking work of the SEC staff, Borgers and his sham audit factory have been permanently closed.”
Shares of Trump Media fell as much as 9% on Friday morning, but later pared their losses to around 4%. The company is now looking for a new auditor, the company said in an email to Business Insider.
“Trump Media looks forward to working with audit partners in accordance with today’s SEC order,” a TMTG spokesperson said.
BF Borgers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
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