The Securities and Exchange Commission has canceled sanctions imposed by audit regulators on a now-retired KPMG auditor connected with a mortgage lender failure at the height of the financial crisis.
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board sanctioned Cynthia Reinhart, who was the engagement partner for Thornburg Mortgage Inc. when it collapsed in 2009 after filing its 2007 financial statements with what would later be revealed as fraudulently overstated income. The SEC brought accounting fraud charges against the company’s CEO, CFO, and chief accounting officer over a scheme to overstate fourth-quarter 2007 profit by $400 million to hide a loss.
