Tag: Settlements

On July 22, 2016, the SEC suspended an accounting firm and permanently suspended one of its former partners for conducting a defective audit for a publicly-traded company allegedly engaged in a fraud scheme that resulted in numerous material misstatements on its financial statements. Exchange Act Rel. No. 78393 (July 22, 2016). These suspensions derived from the SEC’s settlement with New York-based EFP Rotenberg, LLP and engagement partner Nicholas Bottini, CPA, for audit services performed on behalf of ContinuityX Solutions, Inc., which claimed to sell Internet services to businesses. The SEC found that EFP Rotenberg violated and Bottini aided and abetted and caused EFP Rotenberg’s violations of Sections 10A(a)(1) and 10A(a)(2) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 2-02(b)(1) of Regulation S-X. It also concluded that the accounting firm and its former audit partner engaged in improper professional conduct pursuant to Section 4C(a)(2) of the Exchange Act and Rule 102(e)(1)(ii) and (iii) of the SEC’s Rules of Practice.

According to the Order, ContinuityX’s financial misstatements included impermissibly recognizing commission revenue from fraudulent sales transactions, recording assets belonging to third parties as its own and failing to disclose related party transactions. The SEC alleged that when auditing ContinuityX’s fiscal year 2012 financial statements, EFP Rotenberg and Bottini failed to perform sufficient audit procedures and repeatedly engaged in improper professional conduct that resulted in violations of PCAOB standards and demonstrated a lack of competence.  Specifically, the SEC found that the respondents failed to: “(1) appropriately respond to risks of material misstatement; (2) identify related party transactions; (3) obtain sufficient audit evidence; (4) perform procedures to resolve and properly document inconsistencies; (5) investigate management representations that contradicted other audit evidence; and (6) exercise due professional care.” Notwithstanding these shortfalls, the audit firm provided an unqualified opinion on the company’s annual financial statements.

The SEC supported its factual findings with numerous alleged instances in which EFP Rotenberg and Bottini either capitulated to the will of ContinuityX’s management or seemingly concluded their audit procedures prior to obtaining reasonable assurances. These alleged instances included:

• Acquiescence to a scope limitation resulting from the company’s refusal to permit the auditors to obtain accounts receivable confirmations from third parties;
• A failure of the engagement team to perform procedures sufficient to detect whether revenue was earned legitimately despite obtaining adequate documentation to do so;
• An absence of audit workpaper documentation explaining the resolution of material inconsistencies between audit evidence and representations from management; and
• A failure to insist that the company respond to an auditor inquiry regarding whether its chief financial officer had a related party relationship with a particular customer.

Without either respondent admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, EFP Rotenberg agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty and accept a one-year suspension from public company audits, conditioned upon the certification of an independent consultant that it has remedied the various causes behind its failure to detect ContinuityX’s fraud. Bottini agreed to a $25,000 penalty and a permanent suspension from appearing and practicing before the SEC as an accountant, which includes not participating in the financial reporting or audits of public companies. In imposing these penalties, the Order stated that these were not the respondents’ first SEC violations. Both EFP Rotenberg and Bottini each had settled an unrelated 2014 SEC proceeding involving an audit for a separate client that occurred during 2011. In that earlier proceeding, which also included violations of Section 4C(a)(2) and Rule 102(e)(1)(ii), EFP Rotenberg consented to a $50,000 penalty while Bottini agreed to pay $25,000 and accept a minimum two-year suspension. Exchange Act Rel. No. 72503 (July 1, 2014).

Given the presence of repeat offenders and numerous audit deficiencies, it is tempting to discount the overall significance in these particular proceedings, especially when compared to recent enforcement actions brought against more recognizable accounting firms. This would be a mistake, however, as this case serves as a cautionary tale concerning both the particularized financial reporting issues that are receiving heightened regulatory attention and the actions (or inactions) that potentially trigger “gatekeeper” culpability. As Andrew Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, confirmed in a speech earlier this year, two of the central accounting issues in these proceedings – revenue recognition and related party transactions – remain high enforcement priorities. At the same time, Director Ceresney also signaled to the auditing profession that it “must be the bulwark against client pressure” and “demand objective evidence and investigation when they come across situations which suggest inaccuracies in the company filings.” Otherwise, as these proceedings reveal, the SEC intends to make examples of auditors who are found to have shirked these responsibilities and “fail[ed] to heed numerous warnings and red flags concerning alleged frauds.”

Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar provided the most recent illustration of the SEC’s renewed emphasis on enforcement actions involving accounting and financial statement fraud when, on August 28, 2014, he issued a rare written dissent from the agreed-upon settlement in In the Matter of Lynn R. Blodgett and Kevin R. Kyser, CPA,File No. 3-16045 (Aug. 28, 2014). In Blodgett, the SEC charged the former chief executive officer and chief financial officer of Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (“ACS”) with causing the company’s failure to comply with its reporting, record-keeping, and internal control obligations in violation of Sections 13(a), 13(b)(2)(A), and 13(b)(2)(B) of the Exchange Act and Rules 12b-20, 13a-1, 13a-11, 13a-13, and 13a-14 thereunder. The two senior executives collectively paid nearly $675,000 in penalties, disgorgement and prejudgment interest to settle these cease-and-desist proceedings.

According to the SEC, ACS overstated revenue by $124.5 million in fiscal year 2009 by arranging for an equipment manufacturer to redirect through ACS certain preexisting orders that the manufacturer had already received from another company. These so-called “resale transactions” created the false appearance that ACS was involved in these transactions and, in violation of generally accepted accounting principles, generated revenue that allowed ACS to meet both company and analyst growth expectations. The SEC found that the senior executives, who certified the company’s Form 10-K and Forms 10-Q during this period, “understood the origination of these ‘resale transactions’ and their impact on ACS’s reported revenue growth,” but “did not ensure that ACS adequately described their significance in ACS’s public filings and on analyst calls.” Further, the SEC found that both senior executives personally benefitted from ACS’s overstated revenues because their bonuses were tied to the company’s financial performance.

In a Dissenting Statement published concurrent with the Order, Commissioner Aguilar singled out CFO Kyser’s “egregious conduct” and characterized the settlement with him as “a wrist slap at best.” Commissioner Aguilar expressed his belief that Kyser’s actions, “at a minimum,” also violated the nonscienter-based antifraud provisions under Sections 17(a)(2) and/or (3) of the Securities Act and warranted a suspension of Kyser’s ability to appear and practice before the Commission, pursuant to Rule 102(e) of the SEC’s Rules of Practice. As Commissioner Aguilar explained:

Accountants—especially CPAs—serve as gatekeepers in our securities markets. They play an important role in maintaining investor confidence and fostering fair and efficient markets. When they serve as officers of public companies, they take on an even greater responsibility by virtue of holding a position of public trust. To this end, when these accountants engage in fraudulent misconduct, the Commission must be willing to charge fraud and must not hesitate to suspend the accountant from appearing or practicing before the Commission. This is true regardless of whether the fraudulent misconduct involves scienter.

. . . .

I am concerned that this case is emblematic of a broader trend at the Commission where fraud charges—particularly non-scienter fraud charges—are warranted, but instead are downgraded to books and records and internal control charges. This practice often results in individuals who willingly engaged in fraudulent misconduct retaining their ability to appear and practice before the Commission.

While Commissioner Aguilar’s comments may have represented the minority position in Blodgett, this public airing of differences triggered a prompt response from within the Commission. SEC Director of Enforcement Andrew Ceresney issued a press release the following day underscoring that accounting and financial fraud cases remain a “high priority” and noting that “financial reporting cases for 2014 so far have surpassed last year’s total number of cases by 21 percent.” Director Chesney also referenced the recent increase in investigations being conducted by the Financial Reporting and Audit Task Force, which the SEC formed in July 2013.

This documented upsurge in enforcement actions and investigations is consistent with the SEC’s stated policy initiatives for 2014. SEC Chair Mary Jo White warned registrants in January that the Commission would prioritize financial fraud with a particularized focus on the actions of auditors and senior executives. In doing so, she explained, the SEC intended to convey the message “that critical accounting issues are the responsibility of all those involved in the preparation and review of financial disclosures.” Now, less than eight months later, Commissioner Aguilar has sought to further strengthen this message by imposing tougher sanctions on accountants deemed to be at the center of the misconduct. Future settlements will demonstrate to the accounting industry—and the securities profession as a whole—whether his publicized appeal prompted significant change at the Commission.