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AUSTIN, TX — The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy (TSBPA) approved an Agreed Consent Order assessing a reprimand and a $3,000,000 administrative penalty against Ernst & Young LLP (EY) on November 9, 2023. The penalty was the largest administrative penalty that the Texas Board has ever assessed against a CPA firm.
EY was the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) order that included a number of professionals licensed as Texas CPAs who were found to have cheated on ethics exams and on a variety of other examinations required to maintain their Texas CPA licenses. The SEC had further determined that EY had withheld this misconduct from the SEC staff who were involved in the investigation. “The action represents the Board’s message to all Texas licensees that the Board will not tolerate any form of professional misconduct,” said TSBPA Executive Director William Treacy.