The amount of accounting and auditing enforcement actions undertaken by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) decreased in 2021, resulting in a sharp decline in monetary settlements, according to a new report.
Cornerstone Research on Wednesday published its “Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Activity—2021 Review and Analysis,” in which it identified the SEC and PCAOB publicly disclosed 52 accounting and auditing enforcement actions in 2021. Monetary settlements totaled approximately $159 million, representing a nearly 90 percent decline from $1.4 billion in 2020.
