{"id":86058,"date":"2023-10-02T00:35:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T04:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/?p=86058"},"modified":"2023-10-02T00:35:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T04:35:09","slug":"international-accounting-firm-prager-metis-charged-with-hundreds-of-auditor-independence-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/10\/2023\/international-accounting-firm-prager-metis-charged-with-hundreds-of-auditor-independence-violations.html","title":{"rendered":"International Accounting Firm Prager Metis Charged with Hundreds of Auditor Independence Violations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced charges against accounting firm <strong>Prager Metis CPAs, LLC<\/strong> and its California professional services firm, Prager Metis CPAs LLP, (together, Prager) for violating auditor independence rules and for aiding and abetting their clients\u2019 violations of federal securities laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the SEC\u2019s complaint, between approximately December 2017 and October 2020, Prager improperly included indemnification provisions in engagement letters for more than 200 audits, reviews, and exams. As a result, the complaint alleges, <em><strong>Prager was not independent from its clients for those engagements, as required under the federal securities laws.<\/strong><\/em> The SEC alleges that Prager continued to sign engagement letters containing indemnification provisions and also issued \u201caccountant\u2019s reports\u201d in which it purported to be independent in connection with its audits and exams, even after Prager\u2019s senior partners repeatedly were notified that inclusion of indemnification provisions in engagement letters rendered Prager not independent. Many of Prager\u2019s clients included those \u201caccountant\u2019s reports\u201d in their filings with the SEC. Prager allegedly also failed to advise its clients of its violations, even after the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board informed Prager that the indemnification provisions violated the independence requirements of the federal securities laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>\u201cAuditor independence is critical to both protecting the integrity of financial reporting and promoting public trust,\u201d said Eric I. Bustillo, Director of the SEC\u2019s Miami Regional Office.\u00a0\u201cAs alleged in our complaint, over a period of nearly three years, Prager\u2019s audits, reviews, and exams fell short of these fundamental principles. Our complaint is an important reminder that auditor independence is crucial to investor protection.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SEC\u2019s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, charges Prager with violating the auditor independence provisions of the federal securities laws and aiding and abetting its clients\u2019 violations of the federal securities laws. The complaint seeks a permanent injunction, disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, and a civil monetary penalty against Prager.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced charges against accounting firm Prager Metis CPAs, LLC and its California professional services firm, Prager Metis CPAs LLP, (together, Prager) for violating auditor independence rules and for aiding and abetting their clients\u2019 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,16048],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedgeco-networks-press-releases","category-hedgeco-news","category-hedgecovest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86059,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86058\/revisions\/86059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}