Federal Court Orders Accounting Firm to Pay Penalty for Improper Audits of FCM

The CFTC obtained a federal court Consent Order against Tunney Associates, P.C. ("T&A"), an accounting firm, and its sole owner, requiring T&A and its owner to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty for violating CFTC Rules when conducting audits for a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant ("FCM").

The Order stems from a CFTC complaint filed April 18, 2013, that charged T&A and its owner with conducting year-end audits for the FCM that did not follow Generally Accepted Auditing Standards or CFTC Rules, and for failing to report material inadequacies to the CFTC when required to do so. The Order finds that T&A and its owner did not have experience auditing FCMs or entities that held customer segregated accounts, were not qualified to conduct an FCM audit, and that the owner lacked sufficient understanding of the applicable CEA or CFTC regulatory provisions prior to accepting any of the audit engagements.

See: Consent Order; CFTC Press Release.