You’ve probably seen the name pop up in some of the more chaotic financial headlines of the last few years. BF Borgers CPA PC wasn't just another accounting firm in a glass office building. It was, for a brief and wild period, one of the busiest auditors in the United States.
Then it all vanished.
The SEC basically took a sledgehammer to the firm in May 2024, calling it a "sham audit mill." Honestly, the details are still shocking even a couple of years later. This wasn't just a "oops, we missed a decimal point" situation. We are talking about a systemic, deliberate abandonment of every rule in the book.
✨ Don't miss: Why That Logo As Seen On TV Still Commands So Much Power
The Rise of the "Fastest" Auditor in Colorado
Based in Lakewood, Colorado, BF Borgers—led by Benjamin F. Borgers—managed to do something that should have been impossible. They became the eighth-largest audit firm in the country by client count.
How?
By being fast. Way too fast. While massive firms like Deloitte or PwC have thousands of employees to pore over spreadsheets, BF Borgers was running a massive operation with just a handful of staff. At one point, they were handling over 350 public company clients. For a firm that size, that's not "efficiency." It’s a red flag visible from space.
They were the go-to for small-cap companies and, most famously, Trump Media & Technology Group. But the speed came at a cost that eventually broke the entire system.
✨ Don't miss: Why AI Infrastructure Spending Still Matters (Even if the Hype Feels Exhausting)
What Really Happened Behind the Scenes
When the SEC finally lowered the boom, they didn't hold back. They found that BF Borgers was basically "rolling forward" workpapers.
If you aren't an accountant, here is what that looks like: You take the audit from last year, change the date in the Word doc, and hit save. You don't actually check the bank statements. You don't verify the revenue. You just pretend the work happened.
"Borgers and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down." — Gurbir S. Grewal, former Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
The SEC investigation uncovered some truly bizarre behavior:
- Fake Planning Meetings: The firm documented meetings to discuss audit risks that never actually happened.
- The "Single Sign-Off" Trick: In some cases, a single staffer would log in with multiple usernames and sign off on different stages of an audit within seconds of each other.
- The 75% Failure Rate: Out of 369 clients, the SEC estimated that at least 75% of the filings were non-compliant with PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) standards.
Basically, they were selling a rubber stamp and calling it an audit.
The Trump Media Connection
You can't talk about BF Borgers CPA PC without mentioning Truth Social. When Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) went public, Borgers was their auditor.
When the SEC permanently barred the firm and Ben Borgers from "appearing or practicing" before the commission, it sent TMTG and hundreds of other companies into a tailspin. They had to fire the firm immediately. In the world of public trading, if your auditor gets banned for fraud, your financial statements are suddenly worth about as much as a used napkin.
TMTG eventually moved to Semple, Marchal & Cooper, but the reputational "stink" of the Borgers era took a long time to wash off for many of those small-cap issuers.
Why BF Borgers CPA PC is a Warning for Investors
If you’re looking at a penny stock or a fresh SPAC and you see a lone-wolf auditor handling hundreds of clients, run. Seriously.
The Borgers saga proved that the "gatekeepers" of our financial markets aren't always awake at the gate. Ben Borgers personally agreed to pay a $2 million penalty. The firm was hit with $12 million. But for the investors who lost money when these companies had to restate their earnings or saw their stock prices tank because their audits were "shams," that money doesn't really help.
The Fallout That Lingers
It’s now 2026, and we are still seeing the ripples. Even a year after the ban, former partners of the firm were still being hunted down. In March 2025, a former partner was fined $15,000 for "significant audit failures" related to her time at the firm.
The lesson here? An audit is only as good as the person signing it.
Actionable Insights for the Savvy Investor
If you want to avoid getting "Borgers-ed," keep these points in mind:
- Check the Auditor-to-Staff Ratio: If a firm has 100+ public clients and only 5 CPAs, something is wrong. You can find this data in PCAOB inspection reports.
- Watch for "Audit Shopping": If a company switches from a reputable firm to a smaller, "cheaper" one right before a big merger, ask why.
- Read the PCAOB Inspection Reports: These are public documents. If a firm has a "100% deficiency rate" in their inspected audits (like Borgers did), that's not a minor error. That's a house of cards.
- The 8-K is Your Friend: Always watch for Item 4.01 filings. When a company fires an auditor or an auditor resigns, the "why" is usually buried in those paragraphs.
The BF Borgers story isn't just about one guy in Colorado who tried to cut corners. It’s a reminder that in the world of high-stakes finance, if it seems too fast and too cheap to be true, it probably is.