Accounting firm hired to audit Truth Social’s finances quit after less than a year because it no longer wanted to be linked to Trump: FT

• WithumSmith+Brown ceased to be an auditor of Trump Media just months after his appointment.

• The company did not want to be associated with Donald Trump and his business, according to the Financial Times.

• Trump Media’s stock price plunged in the weeks following its IPO.

The accounting firm that was hired to audit former President Donald Trump’s social media company has resigned just months after his appointment, the Financial Times reported Monday.

WithumSmith+Brown was appointed to control the finances of Trump Media & Technology Group shortly after its creation in early 2021. But the company resigned before the end of 2021, the FT reported citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the FT’s sources, WithumSmith+Brown no longer wanted to be associated with Trump and his company after several months of work.

The accounting firm declined to comment on the reasons for his resignation when contacted by the FT.

“Apparently, the Financial Times’ business model is to charge its subscribers $75 a month for the privilege of reading outdated articles touting irrelevant information,” Trump Media said in a statement to the FT.

In January 2022, Trump Media instead turned to a small accounting firm to conduct the audit, BF Borgers, which has a less than stellar record with regulators. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said it identified multiple deficiencies in every audit it reviewed of BF Borgers over the past two years, according to Bloomberg.

BF Borgers was also removed from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ peer review program in November “because the firm was found to be so seriously deficient in its performance that education and corrective action are not required.” not adequate.”

Representatives for BF Borgers did not respond to the FT’s request for comment.

The news regarding Trump Media listeners comes amid volatility in the company’s stock price.

The company’s shares initially soared during its IPO in March, only to fall a week later. Trump Media shares fell again on Monday, according to Axios.

That’s not great for Trump, whose net worth is tied to his holdings in Trump Media. The former president’s net worth increased by more than $4 billion as the company’s shares soared, only for him to be left off Forbes’ list of the world’s 500 richest people when it was released. entry into free fall.

A sustained recovery would have provided a much-needed boost to Trump’s finances, given his mounting legal debts. Trump had posted $175 million bail on April 1 for his civil fraud case in New York. He was initially supposed to post $454 million bail before an appeals court reduced the amount.

Trump must also pay $83.3 million in defamation damages to E. Jean Carroll, a writer whom a jury found last year to have sexually abused.

And on Monday, Trump appeared in a Manhattan court for his first criminal trial. Prosecutors accused Trump of falsifying his business records to cover up a sex scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels.

Representatives for WithumSmith+Brown and Trump Media & Technology Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside of normal business hours.

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