A new report suggests that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is putting more muscle into ferreting out nitty-gritty accounting shenanigans by public companies.
The report by Cornerstone Research found that the SEC publicly disclosed 68 accounting and auditing enforcement actions in its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, a 55% increase from the prior year.
Notably, more than half of all actions were against individuals, which report co-author Alison Forman said comports with Chair Gary Gensler’s priorities.
“Under Chair Gensler’s leadership, the SEC has identified ‘holding individuals accountable’ as a ‘key priority area’ in its enforcement program,” said Forman, a principal at Cornerstone. “So, it is not a surprise that the percentage of actions initiated against individual respondents in FY 2022 was notably higher than those actions initiated during Jay Clayton’s administration.”
Source: Report Suggests SEC Stepping Up Scrutiny of Deceitful Accounting | Corporate Counsel
