President Donald Trump will shift his focus to American energy dominance during a stop in Texas later this week that will include his first visit to an oil rig.
During the stop Wednesday at Double Eagle Energy in the west Texas city of Midland, Trump will discuss how the U.S. is achieving energy dominance by cutting regulations, simplifying permitting and encouraging private investment in energy infrastructure, the White House said.
Trump will also tour an oil rig in Midland, the city where former President George W. Bush was raised and where he met his wife, Laura, who was born there.
While in Texas, Trump will raise money for the Republican Party and his reelection campaign at a fundraising luncheon with supporters in nearby Odessa.
It will be Trump’s 16th visit as president to Texas, the White House said. He won the state in 2016 by 9 percentage points over Democrat Hillary Clinton, and Democrats are hoping for a more competitive race this year against Biden — if not an outright Biden win.
Double Eagle Energy says it is one of the largest operators in the Permian Basin, covering parts of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
The White House said Trump has taken steps to help the energy industry recover after the coronavirus outbreak caused demand for energy — and prices — to plummet as people stayed home to avoid becoming infected.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged an auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group just 37 days ago with “massive fraud” — though not for any work it performed for former President Donald Trump’s media company.
The SEC charged the accounting firm BF Borgers and its owner, Benjamin F. Borgers, with “deliberate and systematic failures” in more than 1,500 audits. The charges include failing to abide by accounting rules, fabricating documentation to cover up its shortcomings, and falsely stating in audit reports that its work met audit standards.
To settle the SEC charges, BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million fine while its owner agreed to pay a fine of $2 million, according to the SEC. Benjamin Borgers did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers also agreed to permanent suspensions, effective immediately, that will prevent them handling SEC-related matters as accountants.
Trump Media named BF Borgers as its auditor on March 28, according to the company's most recent annual report filing. The company disclosed at the time that BF Borgers had also handled its audits before the company went public by merging with a cash-rich shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp.
The company had previously cycled through at least two other auditors — one that resigned the account in July 2023 and another that was terminated by the board in March, just as it was re-hiring BF Borgers.
In a statement, Trump Media said it “looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with today’s SEC order.”
The SEC found that BF Borgers' shortcuts included copying audit documentation from a previous year, changing relevant dates and then passing it off as current documentation. In addition to falsely documenting work that was never actually done, that fake documentation detailed planning meetings with clients that never occurred and “falsely represented” that both Benjamin Borgers and another reviewer had approved the audit work.
“Ben Borgers and his audit firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our financial markets,” said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division. "Thanks to the painstaking work of the SEC staff, Borgers and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down.”
FILE - Pedestrians walk past the Nasdaq building as the stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. is displayed on screens, March 26, 2024, in New York. An auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group just 37 days ago was busted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for “massive fraud” — though not for any work it performed for former President Donald Trump’s media company. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
FILE - The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seen at SEC headquarters, June 19, 2015, in Washington. An auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group just 37 days ago was busted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for “massive fraud” — though not for any work it performed for former President Donald Trump’s media company. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
