The Securities and Exchange Commission charged two KPMG LLP employees with failing to uncover problems at a Nebraska bank that later failed, marking the first time the agency has taken action against auditors related to the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The two KPMG auditors, John J. Aesoph and Darren M. Bennett, did not do enough to scrutinize bad-loan reserves at TierOne Bank of Lincoln, Neb., the SEC said in an administrative proceeding filed yesterday. The action could result in the two auditors losing their right to audit public companies. TierOne hid millions of dollars in losses on troubled loans made during the height of the financial crisis before the bank eventually failed in 2010, according to the commission, which filed suit against three TierOne executives last year.
