The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged accounting firm EY, one of its partners, and two of its former partners with improper professional conduct for violating auditor independence rules
The name of the listed company has been withheld but is connected with EY’s work as the independent auditor for a public company with nearly $5bn (£3.6bn) in revenue. Separately, the Commission brought charges against the company's then-chief accounting officer for his role in the misconduct. All respondents have agreed to settle the charges and will collectively pay more than $10m in fines.
The SEC's order against the auditors finds that EY, EY partner James Herring, CPA, and former EY partners, James Young, CPA and Curt Fochtmann, CPA improperly interfered with the issuer's selection of an independent auditor by soliciting and receiving confidential competitive intelligence and confidential audit committee information from the issuer's then-chief accounting officer, William Stiehl, during the request for proposal process.
