EY has agreed to a combined $9.3 million settlement of auditor independence charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission in two separate cases where auditors got a bit too chummy with their public company audit clients.
While the SEC’s auditor independence cases typically involve inappropriate financial relationships, these two cases instead involve inappropriate personal relationships, said Andrew Ceresney, director of the enforcement at the SEC, in a press briefing. EY is paying stiff fines because of the firm’s “failure to take action when confronted with red flags,” he said.
