Ligand insisted that the joint investigation by its audit committee and BDO Seidman had “found no evidence of improper or fraudulent actions or practices by any member of management or that management acted in bad faith in adopting and administering the company’s historical revenue recognition policies.” The company also reported that it intended to adopt a new revenue recognition model based upon sell-through accounting under which revenue would not be recognized until the company’s wholesalers had sold Ligand’s products to their customer.
On December 10, 2007, the PCAOB issued joint disciplinary releases announcing sanctions imposed on James Fazio and Deloitte and Touche stemming from Fazio’s involvement in the 2003 ligand audit. The PCAOB barred James Fazio from being associated with a PAAOB-registered public accounting firm for two years. In a PACOB press release also issued on December 10, 2007 an agency spokesperson reposted that Fazio violated several professional auditing standards during the 2003 Ligand audit
Mr.Fazio failed to perform appropriate and adequate audit procedures related to Ligand’s reported revenue from sales of products for which a right of return existed and failed to supervise others adequately to ensure the performance of such procedures.
Mr.Fazio neither performed nor ensured the performance of procedures that adequately took into account the existence of factors indicating that Ligand’s ability to make reasonable estimates of estimates of product returns may have been impaired.
Mr.Fazio neither performed nor ensured the performance of procedures that adequately took into account the existent to which ligand had consistently and substantially underestimated its product returns.
In auditing Ligand’s reported revenues, Mr.fazio failed to …the due care and professional skepticism required under the circumstances.
He also failed to identify and appropriately address issues concerning Ligand’s policy of excluding certain types of returns from its estimates of future returns and the adequacy of Ligand’s disclosure of this accounting policy.
The PCAOB publicly censured Deloitte and fined the frim $1 million for failing to take “meaningful steps to assure the quality of the audit work” on the 2003 ligand audit engagement. Accounting to the PCAOB spokesperson, prior to and during the 2003 Ligand audit, “Certain members of Deloitte’s management concluded that Mr. Fazio should be removed from public company audits” and that “ he should be asked to resign from the frim. The spokesperson went on to note that despite the grave concerns expressed regarding Mr. Fazio’s competence, he was allowed to continue as the engagement partner for the 2003 Ligand audit.
The PCAOB’s Director of Enforcement and investigations issued a separate statement on the responsibility of registered accounting firms to ensure that their partners are competent to perform public company audits.
Registered public accounting firms must take reasonable steps to assure that their audit partners and other audit professionals are competent to conduct public audits. When concerns about an auditor’s company rise, a frim must act with dispatch to protect audit quality. The frim Failed to meet the Board’s auditing standards in the audit led by Mr. Fazio.
The sanctions imposed on Deloitte were the first levied on a Big Four accounting firm by the PCAOB. A former SEC official noted that the Ligand case was a milestone in the new agency’s short regulatory history. “It shows that the PCAOB’s Enforcement Division is fully mature and also that we should expect to see within a short period of time additional cases against not only other Big Four firms, but against the so-called second four firms as well.
Deloitte issued a public statement responding to the sanctions imposed on it by the PCAOB. In that statement, a Deloitte official reported that the firm had “established and implemented change to its quality-control policies that directly address the PCAOB’s concerns. “The Deloitte spokesperson went on to insist that the firm was “confident that its audit policies and procedures were among the very best in the profession and that they meet or exceed all applicable standards.