The Public Company Accounting Oversights Board has censured two partners who had worked at Jewett, Schwartz, Wolfe & Associates and revoked the registration of the Hollywood, Fla.-based CPA firm for five years. The agency also barred partner, Lawrence Wolfe, who led the public company audit practice, from being associated with a registered firm.Also censured was Uma D. Basso who supervised junior staff. Basso is barred from such activities as serving as an engagement partner or quality reviewer for two years and must complete 40 hours of continuing public education during that period. Basso and Wolfe were the only partners involved in the audit practice. The firm is now known as Jewett, Schwartz & Associates. Wolfe now operates Larry Wolfe CPA.
The actions were based on the firm's audits of four clients in 2007 and 2008. Among these were MedCom USA which issued restated financial statements for 2006. Wolfe authorized issuing a statement saying the firm had performed an audit, even though it had not done one. In the case of 2007 and 2008, most of the work was done by a staffer who was not a CPA and had little audit experience. Wolfe did not review much of that person's work.
In general, the PCAOB said that Wolfe failed to develop and communicate standards and the firm failed to complete necessary audit work before the issuance of opinions and "in other instance, failed to perform any significant work in critical audit areas."
Basso supervised two junior staff members who, along with Basso performed most of the work.