SAN FRANCISCO — The Securities and Exchange Commission charged an auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group only 37 days ago with “massive fraud” on Friday, but not for any work done for former President Donald Trump’s media company.

The SEC accused the accounting firm BF Borgers and its owner, Benjamin F. Borgers, of “deliberate and systematic failures” in over 1,500 audits.

Trump Media’s Newly Hired Auditing Firm Was Just Busted By The SEC For ‘Massive Fraud’

The charges include failing to follow accounting regulations, falsifying documents to conceal flaws, and falsely claiming in audit reports that its work fulfilled audit criteria.

To settle SEC accusations, BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million fine, while its owner consented to pay a $2 million fine, according to the SEC. Benjamin Borgers did not immediately return a phone for comment.

BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers both agreed to permanent sanctions, which will take effect immediately and prevent them from handling SEC-related matters as accountants.

According to the company’s most recent annual report filing, Trump Media appointed BF Borgers as its auditor on March 28. The business acknowledged that BF Borgers had similarly addressed its audits before its public offering by combining with a cash-rich shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp.

The company had already hired at least two other auditors, one who resigned from the account in July 2023 and another who was fired by the board in March, just as it was rehiring BF Borgers.

Trump Media “looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with today’s SEC order.”

Trump Media’s Newly Hired Auditing Firm Was Just Busted By The SEC For ‘Massive Fraud’

The SEC discovered that BF Borgers’ shortcuts included:

• Copying audit documents from the prior year.
• Changing the pertinent dates.
• Passing it off as current documentation.

In addition to inaccurately recording work that was never completed, the fake documentation detailed planning meetings with clients that never took place and “falsely represented” that both Benjamin Borgers and another reviewer had authorized the audit work.

Trump Media’s Newly Hired Auditing Firm Was Just Busted By The SEC For ‘Massive Fraud’

“Ben Borgers and his audit firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our financial markets,” stated Gurbir Grewal, the SEC’s enforcement director. “Thanks to the painstaking work of the SEC staff, Borgers and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down.”

SOURCE – (AP)

The Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest bank, has removed Chief Financial Officer Nadine Ahn following a probe into a personal relationship she allegedly had with another employee, according to the NDTV.

Ms Ahn joined Royal Bank in 1999 and worked in treasury, risk, investor relations, and other financial responsibilities before becoming CFO in September 2021.

In a press release on April 5, the bank stated that it became aware of ”allegations” against Ms Ahn and initiated an investigation. It discovered she breached its code of conduct by having a ”undisclosed close personal relationship with another employee, that led to preferential treatment of the employee, including promotion and remuneration increases.

The Royal Bank’s code of conduct states: “While we are all held to the high ethical standards set out in our Values and the Code, those of us who are people managers are accountable for leading by example,” which includes “being respectful, transparent, and fair in all relationships.”

Violation of Royal Bank’s code of conduct

Though the investigation absolved both workers of any malfeasance involving the bank’s financial statements, it stated that, despite the lack of financial impropriety, the bank saw her acts as a violation of its code of conduct.

As a result, both employees had their jobs terminated, according to the Royal Bank.

According to The Globe and Mail, the other employee is Ken Mason, a vice president and head of capital and term funding at RBC with 23 years of experience. Katherine Gibson, the bank’s senior vice president of finance and controller, has been designated temporary CFO while the hunt for a permanent successor continues.

An RBC spokesperson said “in her new role, Ms Gibson will bring a wide range of experience leading global teams and major strategic enterprise initiatives, including a deep understanding of business drivers and growth opportunities across several areas of the bank,” RBC stated.

Bank of Canada Ponders Rate Drop

Meanwhile, Governor Tiff Macklem of the Bank of Canada told Senators that it is coming closer to being able to begin reducing interest rates from their current 23-year highs.

Macklem told the Senate Banking Committee that inflation was falling and Canadians wanted to know when the central bank would begin decreasing interest rates.

“The short answer is we are getting closer,” he went on to say.

Canada’s annual inflation rate in March was 2.9%, slightly higher than the previous month. The Bank of Canada has set a 2% inflation objective.

Inflation has remained below 3% since January, in keeping with the central bank’s prediction for the first half of 2024, with carefully watched core consumer price indicators also falling steadily.

“We are seeing what we need to see, but we need to see it for longer to be confident that progress toward price stability will be sustained,” he said.

Washington — Google’s dominance as an internet search engine is an illegal monopoly supported by the tech giant’s annual spending of more than $20 billion to lock out competition, Justice Department lawyers contended after a high-stakes antitrust case.

Conversely, Google claims its success stems from its quality and capacity to offer the results that customers seek.

The United States government, a coalition of states, and Google all submitted their closing arguments in the 10-week lawsuit to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who must now rule whether Google violated the law by preserving a monopoly status in search.

Google, Justice Department Make Final Arguments About Whether Search Engine Is A Monopoly

Much of the lawsuit, the largest antitrust trial in over two decades, has focused on how much Google’s strength stems from partnerships with firms such as Apple to make Google the default search engine preloaded on iPhones and laptops.

At trial, evidence revealed that Google spends over $20 billion annually on such contracts. According to Justice Department lawyers, the large payment demonstrates how crucial it is for Google to establish itself as the default search engine and prevent competitors from gaining a foothold.

Google says that clients can readily switch to other search engines if they choose but always prefer Google. Companies like Apple testified at trial that they work with Google because they believe its search engine is superior.

Google also claims that the government defines the search engine market too narrowly. While it has a commanding lead over rival general search engines such as Bing and Yahoo, Google claims it faces even more fierce competition when customers conduct focused searches. For example, the internet titan claims buyers are more inclined to search for things on Amazon than Google, vacation planners may search on AirBnB, and hungry eaters may search for a restaurant on Yelp.

Google, Justice Department Make Final Arguments About Whether Search Engine Is A Monopoly

Google has also stated that social media businesses such as Facebook and TikTok are formidable competitors.

During Friday’s discussions, Mehta questioned if some other companies were in the same market. He explained that social media companies can make ad money by presenting advertising that fits consumers’ interests. However, he stated that Google has the potential to display advertising in front of users in direct response to inquiries they enter.

“It’s only Google where we can see that directly declared intent,” Mehta said.

Google’s attorney, John Schmidtlein, responded that social media companies “have lots and lots of information about your interests, which I would say is just as powerful.”

The corporation has also said its market dominance is precarious as the internet constantly reinvents itself. Earlier in the trial, it was shown that many experts previously believed that Yahoo would always remain dominating in search. It was reported that younger tech users sometimes refer to Google as “Grandpa Google.”

While Google’s search services are free for customers, the business makes money from searches by selling adverts that appear alongside a user’s search results.

During Friday’s remarks, Justice Department attorney David Dahlquist stated that Google could raise ad income by increasing the number of inquiries submitted until around 2015, when inquiry growth stagnated, and they needed to make more money per search.

The government claims that Google’s search engine monopoly enables it to charge unduly high fees for advertising, which eventually trickle down to consumers.

“Price increases should be limited by competition,” Dahlquist stated. “It should be the market deciding what the price increases are.”

Google, Justice Department Make Final Arguments About Whether Search Engine Is A Monopoly

According to Dahlquist, internal Google records demonstrate that the business, without any meaningful competition, began altering its ad algorithms to occasionally offer customers with inferior search ad results to raise income.

Schmidtlein, Google’s lawyer, stated that the record demonstrates that its search ads have become more effective and useful to customers, rising from a 10% click rate to 30%.

Mehta has yet to say when he will rule, although it is expected to take many months.

If he decides that Google breached the law, he will set up a “remedies” phase of the trial to assess what should be done to increase competition in the search engine industry. The administration has yet to state what type of remedy it will pursue.

SOURCE – (AP)