When an Auditor sees $200 million in Securities on the books they have to Verify that the Securities Exist. No Excuses
The Adjustments are attached to a letter from The Pun Group https://beaumont.civicweb.net/document/19389/2018_Beaumont_SAS%20114%20FINAL%20(SECURED).pdf?handle=BB9B990A9B3A4A6FA586E490182111A5
In the letter The Pun Group repeatedly uses the term ‘professional standards’. The Pun Groups hired Vanessa Burke five days before the City of Beaumont gifted The Pun Group a no-bid Contract so that Vanessa Burke could audit the financial statements she just forged.
The California Board of Accountancy has informed me that Vanessa Burke is registered as a Partner in The Pun Group, so it’s far too late to proclaim any adherence to ‘professional standards’.
The Pun Group’s letter also states: “Accounting estimates are an integral part of the financial statements..”
1. No it’s not. The entire point of Accounting is to account for the money. Receipts and proof of purchases are mandatory. Public or private sector; Forging Assets and Net Worth in order to defraud banks is illegal.
The letter continues on: “Management’s estimate of the investment fair market value is based on the following methods and assumptions: d) Investment in the City’s Special Tax Bonds held by the Beaumont Financing Authority are based on the historical purchase price which approximates fair value as these securities are not tradable.”
Translation: For 25 years Beaumont has claimed their bond debt as an asset instead of a liability.
When a person gets a loan to buy a car; the value of the car is the asset and the loan is the debt. If a person gets a loan to buy a car then spends the money on drugs instead of buying a car there is no asset – there is only the debt, which is a liability.
The City of Beaumont acquired federal bond money under ‘the Beaumont Finance Authority’ then ‘sold’ the bond debt to the ‘Beaumont Community Finance District’ [CFD]’, which is the equivalent of a person running up $1,000 in credit card debt in their right hand, then ‘selling’ the debt to their left hand and claiming that they have an ‘investment’.
The job of an auditor is to verify receipts. The City of Beaumont has recorded hundreds of millions in assets, but does not have any assets. When an auditor sees $200 million in securities on the books they have to verify that the securities exist.
On the 2017 Audit The Pun Group wrote: “In our opinion, the financial statements referred to previously present fairly, in all material respects, the respective financial position of the governmental activities, the business-type activities, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the City, as of June 30, 2017…”
On the 2018 Audit the Pun Group writes: “In our opinion, the financial statements referred to previously present fairly, in all material respects, the respective financial position of the governmental activities, the business-type activities, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the City, as of June 30, 2018 ..”
The Pun Group gives the City of Beaumont clean audits because The Pun Group is conspiring with the City to forge their financial statements in order to defraud federal banking institutions, not because the accounting violations aren’t glaringly obvious.