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Results
On January 22, 2018, the SEC announced civil charges against six certified public accountants for their role in an alleged scheme to misappropriate confidential information from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) relating to the PCAOB's planned inspections of an accounting firm, so that the firm could use the confidential information to help it avoid poor inspections.
On the same day, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced the unsealing of an indictment charging five of the six defendants in the SEC action with conspiracy and wire fraud for their participation in the alleged scheme. The sixth SEC defendant had previously pleaded guilty (and had agreed to settle the SEC's claims) and is cooperating with the Government's investigation.
Three of the defendants are former PCAOB employees. These defendants shared confidential information from the PCAOB with the other three defendants, who were employees of the accounting firm. The defendants who worked for the accounting firm used the confidential inspection information to adjust the results of audits that were set for inspection by the PCAOB with a view to obtaining favorable inspection results.
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