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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Before the
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
Release No. 91185 / February 23, 2021
ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING ENFORCEMENT
Release No. 4204 / February 23, 2021
ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING
File No. 3-20229
In the Matter of
CHRISTOPHER L. STANLEY,
CPA,
Respondent.
ORDER INSTITUTING PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS
PURSUANT TO SECTION 4C OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF
1934 AND RULE 102(e) OF THE
COMMISSION’S RULES OF
PRACTICE, MAKING FINDINGS,
AND IMPOSING REMEDIAL
SANCTIONS
I.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) deems it appropriate and in the
public interest that public administrative proceedings be, and hereby are, instituted against
Christopher L. Stanley (“Stanley” or “Respondent”) pursuant to Section 4C of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and Rule 102(e)(1)(ii) of the Commission’s Rules of
Practice.
II.
In anticipation of the institution of these proceedings, Respondent has submitted an Offer
of Settlement (the “Offer”), which the Commission has determined to accept. Solely for the
purpose of these proceedings and any other proceedings brought by or on behalf of the
Commission, or to which the Commission is a party, and without admitting or denying the findings
herein, except as to the Commission’s jurisdiction over them and the subject matter of these
proceedings, which are admitted, Respondent consents to the entry of this Order, as set forth
below.
2
III.
On the basis of this Order and the Respondent’s Offer, the Commission finds1 that:
A. SUMMARY
1. Starting as early as 2013, the College of New Rochelle (the “College”) began
experiencing considerable financial challenges resulting from declining student enrollment and
decreasing tuition revenues. During fiscal year 2015, the College’s then current Controller, Keith
Borge (“Borge”), engaged in a fraudulent scheme that involved numerous fraudulent
misrepresentations and omissions in order to conceal the College’s financial challenges.
2. KPMG LLP (“KPMG”) was the College’s independent auditor during the relevant
period. For fiscal year 2015, Stanley was the audit partner responsible for the audit. In that
capacity, Stanley failed to comply with American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
(“AICPA”) auditing standards (“AICPA Standards”) during the College’s fiscal year 2015 audit.
Specifically, Stanley’s violations of the auditing standards stemmed from his failures to: (1) obtain
sufficient appropriate audit evidence; (2) properly prepare audit documentation; (3) properly
examine journal entries for evidence of fraud due to management override; (4) adequately assess
the risk of material misstatement; (5) communicate significant audit challenges to those charged
with governance; (6) properly supervise the audit; and, (7) exercise due professional care and
professional skepticism. These numerous and pervasive audit failures significantly reduced the
audit team’s ability to detect Borge’s fraud.
3. Notwithstanding these audit failures, Stanley approved the issuance of an audit
report for fiscal year 2015 stating that the audit was performed in accordance with generally
accepted auditing standards2 (“GAAS”). This statement was false in that the audit was not
performed in accordance with GAAS.
4. Pursuant to a 1999 bond offering, the College was contractually obligated to
provide annual continuing disclosure information to investors, including audited financial
statements. Stanley knew or should have known that the audit report, along with the College’s
fiscal year 2015 financial statements, would be submitted to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking
Board (“MSRB”) for posting in its Electronic Municipal Market Access (“EMMA”) system
pursuant to the College’s annual continuing disclosure requirements.
1 The findings herein are made pursuant to the Respondent’s Offer of Settlement and are
not binding on any other person or entity in this or any other proceeding.
2 Generally accepted auditing standards for audits of entities not subject to the oversight authority of the
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) are promulgated by the AICPA.
3
B. RESPONDENT
5. Christopher L. Stanley, age 44, of Tarrytown, New York, is a Certified Public
Accountant (“CPA”) licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey. Stanley began his
employment at KPMG in 2001 as an Associate and was subsequently promoted to Manager in
2004, Managing Director in 2014 and Partner in 2015. Stanley resigned from KPMG in March
2020. Stanley served as the KPMG engagement partner on, and had final audit responsibility over,
the College’s fiscal year 2015 audit engagement.
C. OTHER RELEVANT ENTITIES
6. KPMG LLP is a Delaware limited liability partnership headquartered in New York
City. KPMG is registered with the PCAOB and is the U.S. member firm of the KPMG global
network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Limited, a private
English company limited by guarantee. KPMG was the College’s auditor for fiscal year 2015.
7. The College of New Rochelle was a private, not-for-profit education corporation
based in New Rochelle, New York, with additional locations in New York City. The College
ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy in September 2019 as a result of its financial challenges.
8. Keith Borge, age 64, of Brooklyn, New York, served as Controller of the College
during fiscal year 2015 and began employment with the College in 1979 as Assistant Controller.
Borge was responsible for perpetrating the fraud described herein. Borge pled guilty to criminal
securities fraud charges on March 28, 2019 and is currently serving a 3-year sentence in federal
prison. On the same day the SEC filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York against Borge which was subsequently settled on July 2, 2019.
D. FACTS
Borge’s Fraud
9. Starting as early as spring 2013, the College began experiencing financial
challenges resulting from decreases in student enrollment and tuition revenues. To bridge the
increasing gap between the College’s revenues and expenses, Borge began using funds in the
College’s endowment to pay for operating expenses. The consumption of these funds resulted in a
rapid decrease in the College’s net assets, from approximately $30.5 million at the conclusion of
fiscal year 2012 to negative $8.8 million at the conclusion of fiscal year 20153.
10. In order to conceal the precipitous decline in the College’s net assets, Borge
engaged in a fraudulent scheme, the result of which overstated assets and understated liabilities of
the College. For example, Borge intentionally withheld payroll tax remittances from federal, state
and local authorities starting as early as fiscal year 2013. However, instead of reporting the payroll
tax liabilities in the College’s financial statements, Borge recorded a series of improper and
unsupported journal entries, which concealed the payroll tax liabilities in the College’s general
3 The College’s fiscal year ended on June 30.
4
ledger and financial statements. Borge also hid numerous past due vendor invoices in his office,
thereby preventing them from being recorded in the College’s financial statements, and allowed
receivables to be reported at inflated values.
11. As a result of Borge’s fraud, the College’s fiscal year 2015 net assets were
overstated by $33.8 million, an overstatement which impacted virtually every amount reported on
the College’s balance sheet.
KPMG’s Audit of the College’s Fiscal Year 2015 Financial Statements
12. KPMG performed the College’s financial statement audits during the relevant
period culminating with the fiscal year 2015 engagement. Stanley was the engagement partner for
the fiscal year 2015 audit with overall responsibility for supervising the audit team and approving
the audit report, with a focus on reviewing draft financial statements. Stanley was a member of
KPMG’s Higher Education, Research and Other Not-For-Profit (“HERON”) dedicated practice
group and had extensive experience auditing higher education and not-for-profit entities.
13. In the spring of 2015, the KPMG audit team assigned to complete the College’s
2015 audit, including Stanley, met with the College’s management team and presented the audit
plan to the College’s Audit Committee. KPMG’s presentation to the Audit Committee included,
among other things, an audit timeline with fieldwork scheduled to begin in August 2015 and an
expected audit report issuance date of September 2015.
14. Almost from inception, the KPMG audit team encountered significant challenges
primarily due to Borge’s untimely and inaccurate responses to the requests of the audit team. First,
when the audit team arrived to begin fieldwork in August 2015 they discovered large amounts of
information which was scheduled to be available, including the critical trial balance, was not yet
ready. In addition, the information that the College was able to provide, such as supporting
documentation for the College’s investment balances, contained reconciling issues and
contradictions.
15. The significant challenges encountered by the audit team worsened as the audit
progressed. For example, the reconciling issues with the College’s investment balances continued
to persist even after Stanley and the KPMG engagement manager unsuccessfully attempted to
resolve the issue. In other instances Borge, who was the audit team’s primary contact at the
College, took extended periods of leave during critical times in the audit leaving audit team
members without the information necessary to complete the audit.
16. On September 24, 2015, Stanley discussed a draft of the College’s fiscal year 2015
financial statements with the Audit Committee. Included in the presentation was a slide explaining
that there were still open items and questions that needed to be addressed prior to KPMG’s
issuance of the audit report. However, Stanley did not inform the Audit Committee that the audit
report issuance was delayed primarily because of the significant challenges that the audit team had
experienced with Borge’s untimely and inaccurate responses to the requests of the audit team.
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Following the Audit Committee presentation, Borge failed to provide the audit team with a timely
response to the open items and questions and, as a result, work on the audit stalled.
17. The significant challenges related to Borge’s untimely and inaccurate responses
continued throughout October and November 2015. The challenges to complete the audit became
so significant and pervasive throughout October and November 2015 that audit team members sent
emails to the engagement manager (but not to Stanley) that Borge “just makes up numbers from
his head” and that the financial statements “are never going to get issued because [Borge] doesn’t
care.” Despite the fact that he had not met the audit team’s requests for information, on November
30, 2015, Borge emailed the engagement manager notifying her that the College had a deadline to
provide its audited financial statements to its bank and that the College needed KPMG to issue the
audit report that day. In response, the engagement manager informed Borge that the audit team
was still waiting on open items and questions and that the financial statements needed to be
reviewed by Stanley. The engagement manager suggested that they schedule a time the following
day to resolve the outstanding issues.
18. Also during the morning of November 30, 2015, Stanley received a telephone
voicemail from the President of the College informing him of the bank deadline and the need for
KPMG to issue the College’s audit report that day. Following receipt of that voicemail, Stanley
approached the engagement manager to ask her what needed to be done in order for KPMG to
issue its audit report. During the next few hours Stanley and the engagement manager reviewed
the outstanding open items and unanswered questions and unreasonably concluded that none of the
outstanding items or questions should prevent KPMG from issuing its audit report. As a result,
KPMG issued its audit report containing an unmodified audit opinion on the College’s fiscal year
2015 financial statements by mid-afternoon on November 30, 2015.
19. Although KPMG issued its audit report on November 30, 2015, the audit evidence
at that time was not sufficient to support the audit opinion. The audit team, under Stanley’s
supervision, failed to verify the existence of assets or the completeness of liabilities. In addition,
approximately a third of the work papers in KPMG’s electronic work paper repository (the “eAudit
file”) did not contain any indication that they were prepared or reviewed as of November 30, 2015.
20. KPMG’s work on the College’s financial statement audit continued through
January 2016. One audit team member spent 2 ½ days in December 2015 unsuccessfully trying to
locate missing work papers and address open items and questions. In early January 2016, a new
senior associate was assigned to take over the responsibility to clean-up the audit file but was also
unable to locate all of the missing work papers or address all of the open items and questions. Four
business days before the audit file was required to be closed pursuant to KPMG policies, the new
senior associate emailed the engagement manager a list of 39 open items as well as 81 additional
work papers that required the engagement manager’s review. The engagement manager then
marked the work papers as “reviewed” and closed the audit file on the last day.
21. A few months after the College’s audit file was closed, the new senior associate
exchanged text messages with the engagement manager (but not with Stanley) concerning an
unrelated audit, saying “at least they are close to truly done too, and not fake done like the . . .
6
CNR audit.” In November 2016, after Borge’s fraud was discovered, KPMG withdrew its audit
opinion on the College’s FY15 financial statements.
Failure to Obtain Sufficient Appropriate Audit Evidence
22. GAAS require that auditors should design and perform audit procedures that are
appropriate in the circumstances for the purpose of obtaining sufficient appropriate audit evidence
(AU-C §500). Stanley failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence during the College’s
fiscal year 2015 audit in multiple areas.
23. For instance, Stanley failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to
support the College’s investment balances. During fieldwork the audit team identified reconciling
issues where investment schedules provided by Borge did not tie to the College’s brokerage
statements or the financial statements. In response, Borge informed the audit team that the
reconciling issues were probably due to trades in transit at fiscal year-end. However, the audit
team, under Stanley’s supervision, was never able to successfully reconcile nor did it perform
alternative procedures to substantiate the College’s investment balances reported in the College’s
financial statements.
24. Stanley also failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to confirm the
completeness of the College’s accounts payable balance. The College’s accounts payable balance
decreased by 59% in fiscal year 2015. This was due to Borge fraudulently preventing vendor
invoices from being recorded in the College’s accounts payable system. Despite this decrease, the
audit team determined the risk of material misstatement for the College’s accounts payables to be
low, based on its conclusion that “there was very little, if any, change to the characteristics of the
account compared to the prior year.” As a result, the audit team’s ability to detect the fact that
Borge was withholding vendor invoices was significantly reduced. Stanley reviewed and signed
off on the audit team’s search for unrecorded liabilities.
25. Finally, Stanley failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to support the
College’s other accounts receivable balance. Notwithstanding annual increases in the College’s
other accounts receivable balance going back multiple years, KPMG did not test any of the other
accounts receivable to verify its existence during the fiscal year 2015 audit. Instead, KPMG’s
work papers document that $3.9 million of other accounts receivable had been tested in prior years
(some of which dated back to fiscal year 2011) and that the audit team passed on testing the
remaining $1.8 million because the amount was below the performance materiality threshold. It
was later determined that supporting documentation for most of the College’s $5.7 million other
accounts receivable reported in fiscal year 2015 did not exist.
Failure to Properly Prepare Audit Documentation
26. GAAS require that the auditor should prepare audit documentation on a timely
basis. An auditor is required to prepare audit documentation that is sufficient to enable an
experienced auditor, having no previous connection with the audit, to understand the nature,
timing, and extent of the audit procedures performed, the results of the procedures performed, the
7
audit evidence obtained and conclusions reached, who performed and reviewed the work and the
date such work was completed (AU-C §230). Finally, AICPA Standards require the auditor’s
opinion to be in written form and dated no earlier than the date on which the auditor has obtained
sufficient appropriate audit evidence on which to base the auditor’s opinion on the financial
statements, including evidence that the audit documentation has been reviewed (AU-C §700).
27. Stanley failed to prepare adequate audit documentation during the College’s fiscal
year 2015 engagement. KPMG manages and monitors the status of its audit documentation
through its eAudit program. As explained above, as of November 30, 2015, the date of the audit
report, approximately a third of the audit work papers were not documented as either being
prepared or reviewed in the eAudit program. In addition, there was no evidence outside of the
eAudit program that the work papers that were lacking documentation were in fact reviewed prior
to the date of the audit report. Instead, the process of preparing and reviewing the work papers that
lacked proper documentation as of November 30, 2015 was completed subsequent to the audit
report date.
Failure to Properly Examine Journal Entries for Evidence of Fraud Due to
Management Override
28. GAAS require that the auditor maintain professional skepticism throughout the
audit by recognizing that, regardless of the auditor’s prior experience with the client, the possibility
of a material misstatement due to fraud always exists. As such, the risk of a material misstatement
due to management override is present in all entities and is a significant risk. As a result, auditors
are required to, among other things, select and test journal entries and other adjustments made at
the end of a reporting period (AU-C §240).
29. Stanley failed to comply with this requirement. During the College’s fiscal year
2015 audit, the audit team did not obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence with respect to
journal entries posted at the end of the fiscal year. As a result, the audit team’s ability to detect the
numerous fraudulent journal entries that Borge posted during the College’s year-end financial
closing process was significantly reduced.
Failure to Adequately Assess the Risks of Material Misstatement
30. GAAS require that the auditor perform risk assessment procedures to provide a
basis for the identification and assessment of risks of material misstatement. Additionally, auditors
are required to revise the risk assessment in circumstances in which the auditor obtains audit
evidence that is inconsistent with the audit evidence on which the auditor originally based the risk
assessment (AU-C §315).
31. Stanley failed to adequately assess and reassess the risks of material misstatement
during the College’s fiscal year 2015 audit. The audit team’s risk analysis appears to have been
performed during previous audits without taking into consideration the College’s current operating
environment. For example, as described above, despite a 59% decrease in the College’s accounts
payable balance, the audit team assessed a low risk of material misstatement based on its
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assessment that “there was very little, if any, change to the characteristics of the account compared
to the prior year.” In addition, amidst increasing challenges primarily related to receiving timely
and credible information from Borge, the audit team never reassessed the risk of material
misstatement during the College’s fiscal year 2015 audit.
Failure to Communicate Significant Audit Challenges to Those Charged with
Governance
32. GAAS require that the auditor communicate to those charged with governance,
among other things, significant difficulties encountered during the audit. This type of
communication from auditors enables those charged with governance to effectively carry out their
financial reporting oversight responsibilities (AU-C §260).
33. Stanley communicated the status of the audit to those charged with governance
during the September 24, 2015 presentation to the Audit Committee. During that presentation,
Stanley also informed the Audit Committee that there were still open items and questions that
needed to be addressed prior to audit report issuance. However, Stanley failed to communicate to
the Audit Committee the significant challenges that the audit team encountered throughout the
audit. Nevertheless, Stanley issued a letter to the College’s Audit Committee at the conclusion of
the fiscal year 2015 audit stating “We encountered no significant difficulties in dealing with
management in performing our audit.”
Failure to Properly Supervise the Audit
34. GAAS require that the engagement partner take responsibility for the overall
quality of each audit. In order to comply with this requirement, the engagement partner is
responsible for, among other things, directing, supervising and performing the audit in compliance
with professional standards and ensuring that the auditor’s report is appropriate in the
circumstances (AU-C §220).
35. Stanley, in his role as engagement partner, failed to properly supervise the
College’s audit. As discussed above, Stanley failed to address the challenges that the audit team
encountered during the audit. Stanley also failed to provide reasonable assurance that audit
documentation was sufficient, appropriate and complete prior to issuing the audit report. In
addition, Stanley failed to provide reasonable assurance that the procedures performed by the audit
team complied with GAAS.
Failure to Exercise Due Professional Care and Professional Skepticism
36. GAAS require that the auditor exercise due professional care and professional
skepticism during the planning and performance of an audit (AU-C §200). Professional skepticism
is an attitude that includes a questioning mind, being alert to conditions that may indicate possible
misstatement due to fraud or error, and a critical assessment of audit evidence.
37. Stanley failed to maintain professional skepticism during the planning and
performance of the College’s audit. As previously discussed, Stanley failed to exercise
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professional skepticism with respect to the numerous reconciling issues that the audit team had
encountered including the receipt of unreliable audit evidence from Borge. In addition, Stanley
failed to adequately follow up on concerns raised by the audit team which should have prompted
additional inquiry, corroboration or analysis. As the audit progressed, and the audit team
continued to encounter challenges with the timing and reliability of the information received from
Borge, Stanley did not respond appropriately in order to obtain sufficient appropriate audit
evidence.
E. VIOLATIONS
38. Section 4C of the Exchange Act and Rule 102(e)(1)(ii) of the Commission’s Rules
of Practice provide, in pertinent part, that the Commission may censure or deny, temporarily or
permanently, the privilege of appearing or practicing before the Commission to any person who is
found by the Commission to have engaged in improper professional conduct. Section 4C(b)(2)
and Rule 102(e)(1)(iv)(B) define improper professional conduct to include the following two types
of negligent conduct: (1) a single instance of highly unreasonable conduct that results in a violation
of applicable professional standards in circumstances in which an accountant knows, or should
know, that heightened scrutiny is warranted; or (2) repeated instances of unreasonable conduct,
each resulting in a violation of applicable professional standards, that indicate a lack of competence
to practice before the Commission.
39. As a result of the conduct described above, Stanley engaged in improper
professional conduct under Section 4C(a)(2) of the Exchange Act and Rule 102(e)(1)(ii) as defined
in Rule 102(e)(1)(iv)(B) of the Commission’s Rules of Practice.
F. UNDERTAKING
40. Stanley undertakes that he shall not serve as the engagement manager, engagement
partner or engagement quality control reviewer in connection with any audit expected to be posted
in EMMA until reinstated to appear before the Commission as an independent accountant.
41. In determining whether to accept the Offer, the Commission has considered
Stanley’s undertaking.
IV.
In view of the foregoing, the Commission deems it appropriate and in the public interest to
impose the sanctions agreed to in Stanley’s Offer.
Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that:
A. Stanley is suspended from appearing or practicing before the Commission as an
accountant.
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1. After three years from the date of this order, Stanley may request that the
Commission consider his reinstatement by submitting an application (attention: Office of
the Chief Accountant) to resume appearing or practicing before the Commission as:
a. a preparer or reviewer, or a person responsible for the preparation or
review, of any public company’s financial statements that are filed
with the Commission (other than as a member of an audit committee,
as that term is defined in Section 3(a)(58) of the Exchange Act).
Such an application must satisfy the Commission that Stanley’s work
in his practice before the Commission as an accountant will be
reviewed either by the independent audit committee of the public
company for which he works or in some other acceptable manner, as
long as he practices before the Commission in this capacity; and/or
b. a preparer or reviewer, or a person responsible for the preparation or
review, of any public company’s financial statements that are filed
with the Commission as a member of an audit committee, as that term
is defined in Section 3(a)(58) of the Exchange Act. Such an
application will be considered on a facts and circumstances basis with
respect to such membership, and the applicant’s burden of
demonstrating good cause for reinstatement will be particularly high
given the role of the audit committee in financial and accounting
matters; and/or
c. an independent accountant.
Such an application must satisfy the Commission that:
(1) Stanley, or the public accounting firm with which he is
associated, is registered with the PCAOB in accordance
with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and such registration
continues to be effective;
(2) Stanley, or the registered public accounting firm with
which he is associated, has been inspected by the PCAOB
and that inspection did not identify any criticisms of or
potential defects in Stanley’s or the firm’s quality control
system that would indicate that Stanley will not receive
appropriate supervision;
(3) Stanley has resolved all disciplinary issues with the
PCAOB, and has complied with all terms and conditions of
any sanctions imposed by the PCAOB (other than
reinstatement by the Commission); and
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(4) Stanley acknowledges his responsibility, as long as he
appears or practices before the Commission as an
independent accountant, to comply with all requirements of
the Commission and the PCAOB, including, but not limited
to, all requirements relating to registration, inspections,
concurring partner reviews and quality control standards.
2. The Commission will consider an application by Stanley to resume
appearing or practicing before the Commission provided that his state CPA license is
current and he has resolved all other disciplinary issues with the applicable state boards
of accountancy. However, if state licensure is dependent on reinstatement by the
Commission, the Commission will consider an application on its other merits. The
Commission’s review may include consideration of, in addition to the matters referenced
above, any other matters relating to Stanley’s character, integrity, professional conduct or
qualifications to appear or practice before the Commission as an accountant. Whether an
application demonstrates good cause will be considered on a facts and circumstances
basis with due regard for protecting the integrity of the Commission’s processes.
By the Commission.
Vanessa A. Countryman
Secretary