The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined Friedman LLP, an accounting firm, for failing to design and perform adequate audits for two firms from 2017 to 2020. The financial watchdog wrote in a press release that the accounting firm agreed to pay around $1.5 million in total monetary relief.
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The SEC claims that Friedman conducted audits for grocery chain iFresh, Inc. from 2017 through 2020. During that period, the firm failed to "recognize red flags" that indicated undisclosed related parties. The SEC added:
"Friedman also failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence, respond to fraud risks, and perform procedures to identify related party transactions during its audits of iFresh."
Besides iFresh, Friedman also did not "exercise professional skepticism," when it audited another public company, but declined to name one. The financial regulator said that Friedman had failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence in connection with multiple transactions and relationships it encountered during its audit of that company.
Although the SEC doesn't specifically name Tether, Friedman was offering accounting services for the stablecoin issuer from May 2017 to January 2018.
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