backOn March 12, 2025, the PCAOB announced a settled disciplinary order against the audit partner of a Colorado public accounting firm in connection with the firm’s audits of a Nevada issuer for FY 2021 and 2022. The Board alleged that the audit partner repeatedly violated multiple PCAOB rules and standards in connection with her role as engagement partner on those consecutive audits. Specifically, she failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence in multiple areas that she had identified as significant risks, including revenue recognition and accounting estimates; authorized the issuance of audit reports for each of the audits, for which certain audit procedures intended to address identified critical audit matters were not actually performed; and failed to appropriately supervise the audits with adequate evaluation of whether work was performed, objectives achieved, and conclusions supported. Additionally, the Board found that the partner violated auditor independence requirements by serving as the issuer’s engagement partner for a sixth consecutive year.
Without admitting or denying the Board’s findings, the audit partner consented to the Order which (1) censured her; (2) imposed a $15,000 civil money penalty; and (3) barred her from being an associated person of a registered public accounting firm, with a right to reapply after two years. The Board noted that it would have imposed a civil money penalty of $75,000 if it had not taken the audit partner’s financial resources into consideration.
The settled order is available here.