Trump Media hires new auditor after previous accounting firm charged with ‘massive fraud’

Truth
Social
owner


Trump
Media
hired
a

new
auditor
over
the
weekend
after
its
previous
public

accounting
firm
was
accused
of
perpetrating
a
massive
fraud
by
the

U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission,
according
to
a
regulatory
filing
Monday.

Trump
Media
said
it
had
engaged

Semple,
Marchal
&
Cooper
LLP
on
Saturday
to
replace
BF
Borgers
CPA.

Trump
Media
fired
BF
Borgers
after
the
SEC
accused
that
firm
of
failing
to
perform
actual
audits
of
its
clients
and
other
purported
work
before
signing
off
on
more
than
1,500
regulatory
filings
for
public
companies.

As
part
of
its
settlement
with
the
regulator,
BF
Borgers
and
its
owner
Benjamin
Borgers
agreed
to
a
permanent
ban
from
auditing
public
companies,
and
to
pay
$14
million
in
fines.

The
ban
required
Trump
Media
and
other
public
companies
that
had
used
BF
Borgers
to
find
new
auditors.

“The
decision
to
change
independent
registered
public
accounting
firms
was
made
with
the
recommendation
and
approval
of
the
Audit
Committee
of
the
Company,”
Trump
Media
said
Monday
in
an
8-K
filing
announcing
its
new
auditor.

In
a
subsequent
filing
Monday,
Trump
Media
said
Semple,
Marchal
&
Cooper
was
selected “after
a
detailed
evaluation
process.”

Trump
Media
in
that
second
filing
also
said
it “anticipates
seeking
a
limited
extension
of
the
deadline
for
its
upcoming
10-Q
by
filing
a
Form
12b-25
no
later
than
one
business
day
after
the
original
due
date
for
such
report.”
10-Qs
are
quarterly
reports.

Former
President

Donald
Trump
owns
65%
of
Trump
Media’s
stock,
which
trades
under
the
ticker

DJT,
his
initials.

A
spokesperson
for
Trump
Media
did
not
immediately
respond
Monday
when
CNBC
asked
whether
the
company
plans
to
ask
Semple,
Marchal
&
Cooper
to
review
the
past
work
done
by
BF
Borgers
to
determine
whether
the
firm
violated
auditing
industry
standards
in
Trump
Media’s
case.

Semple,
Marchal
&
Cooper
had
no
immediate
comment
about
its
appointment.

The
Phoenix-based
firm’s
website
said
the
auditor
in
its
four
decades
of
operation
has “become
a
preeminent,
and
highly
respected,
certified
public
accounting
firm.”

The
SEC
called
BF
Borgers
a “sham
audit
mill”
in
its
civil
regulatory
action,
accusing
the
Lakewood,
Colorado,
firm
and
its
owner
of “deliberately”
and “systematically”
failing
to
conduct
audits
and
quarterly
reviews
in
accordance
with
public
accounting
firm
standards.

More
than
500
public
companies’
SEC
filings
were
affected
by
Borgers’
systemic
failure
to
properly
audit
its
clients,
the
commission
said
Friday.

Financial
information
that
Borgers
signed
off
on
was
incorporated
into
more
than
1,500
SEC
filings
dating
from
early
2021
through
mid-2023.

Trump
Media
was
not
yet
publicly
traded
at
the
time
of
the
alleged
conduct
by
BF
Borgers.
But
the
firm
was
acting
as
Trump
Media’s
auditor
during
that
time.

Trump
Media’s
stock
became
publicly
traded
on
March
26
after
the
company
completed
a
merger
with
the
shell
company
Digital
World
Acquisition
Corp.,
which
was
previously
publicly
traded.

The
SEC
also
said
Friday
that
reports
filed
by
companies
that
used
BF
Borgers “do
not
necessarily
need
to
be
amended
solely
because”
of
the
commission’s
cease-and-desist
order.

“However,
issuers
should
consider
whether
their
filings
may
need
to
be
amended
to
address
any
reporting
deficiencies
arising
from
the
BF
Borgers
engagement,”
the
SEC
said.

In
its
SEC
filing
Monday,
Trump
Media
said, “BF
Borgers’
audit
reports
on
the
Company’s
consolidated
financial
statements
as
of
and
for
the
fiscal
years
ended
December
31,
2023
and
December
31,
2022
did
not
contain
an
adverse
opinion
or
a
disclaimer
of
opinion
and
were
not
qualified
or
modified
as
to
audit
scope
or
accounting
principles.”

“During
the
fiscal
years
ended
December
31,
2023
and
2022,
and
the
subsequent
interim
period
through
the
date
of
this
report,
there
were
no
disagreements,
as
that
term
is
defined
in
Item
304(a)(1)(iv)
of
Regulation
S-K,
between
the
Company
and
BF
Borgers
on
any
matter
of
accounting
principles
or
practices,
financial
statement
disclosure,
or
auditing
scope
or
procedure,
which
disagreements,
if
not
resolved
to
BF
Borgers’
satisfaction,
would
have
caused
BF
Borgers
to
make
reference
to
such
disagreements
in
its
audit
reports,”
Trump
Media
said
in
the
filing.