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Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 26 seconds

China Audits Trip Up Buffalo Firm

Brock, Schecter logoA Buffalo, N.Y., accounting firm, whose former partner got it into the business of auditing Chinese companies and then faked documentation, was censured and its registration with the Public Accounting Company Oversight Board revoked. Brock, Schechter & Polakoff was pulled into the business, along with former director of auditing and accounting, James R. Waggoner, even though the firm had no auditing experience and no one on the staff understood Chinese. The firm must pay a $20,000 civil money penalty while Waggoner was censured and barred from associating with any PCAOB registered firm.

LinkedIn shows that Waggoner now operates a firm under own name, but the page provides little information. However, his prior firm's Facebook page shows that Waggoner was honored in 2009 for 30 years of service with BSP.

PCOAB documents show BSP accepted the engagements with companies in China and Taiwan after being approached by firms there. It agreed to sign off on financial statements with the overseas firms, one in Taiwan and one in China, doing all the field work. The three overseas companies were Kid Castle Education Corp., North American Gaming and Entertainment and China Junlian. Waggoner, age 53, and identified by the PCAOB as residing in Kenmore, N.Y., left planning up to the Chinese companies

Waggoner also chaired the post issuance review program and interacted with peer-to-peer reviewers.

After receiving notice on Oct. 29, 2008 that the PCAOB would inspect the financial statements of Kid Castle and China Junlian, Waggoner told the companies to send relevant documents which the firm had not previously had it its possession and added backdated notes after receiving them. In one case, North American gaming submitted planning documents that were largely written in untranslated Chinese. In two cases, Waggoner handed the work off to BSP staffers. Those were communicated to the clients, but no steps were taken to make sure any changes were made.

With China Junlian, Waggoner made no effort to ascertain the qualifications of the Chinese accounting firm involved the audit of the company's 2007 financial statements provided no instructions to its staff and did not adequately review the work. Discrepancies were detected in Chinese firm's audit working papers, but no effort was made to resolve them.

 

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Bob Scott
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
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