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Tennessee Board of Accountancy approves licensing committee recommendations and multiple enforcement settlements, including two revocations
Summary
At its Oct. 21 meeting the Tennessee State Board of Accountancy approved licensing committee recommendations (exam credit extensions, NACD exam approval, a foreign-evaluation provider) and accepted enforcement committee recommendations including consent orders, civil penalties and two agreed revocations following criminal convictions.
The Tennessee State Board of Accountancy on Oct. 21 approved a slate of licensing recommendations and enforcement actions after committee review and committee-originated motions.
The board voted to adopt the licensing committee’s recommendations, which included extensions of CPA exam credit for three candidates, approval of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) exam for CPE credit (specialized knowledge, qualifying for 20 CPE hours), and approval of Scalero as an approved foreign-education evaluation service provider for Tennessee. The committee also recommended declining a CPA’s request to accept 25 CPE hours from a sponsor not registered with NASBA; the board approved declining the credit but voted to waive 16 penalty hours and give the licensee 180 days to obtain 25 replacement hours from an approved sponsor.
The enforcement committee’s recommendations — reviewed in detail at the committee meeting the day before — were presented as a package. The board adopted the committee’s process change to add investigative costs to enforcement recommendations and approved an agreed-citation cover-letter and agreed-citation template for staff use under defined conditions. The board approved the consent-agenda dispositions for cases 1–12 as recommended (mostly dismissal for lack of jurisdiction or referral to another state board where appropriate).
The board then approved proposed disciplines and settlement offers for multiple cases presented by counsel. Examples include: - Case 2025036511: recommend formal charges for failure to respond and performing a test service without peer review; counsel recommended a consent order option of $2,500 civil penalty plus $845 investigation cost (half the investigation cost). The committee concurred and the board approved the recommendation. - Case 2025044851: contractor-referral matter recommending formal charges and an offered consent order with $1,750 civil penalty and $260 in costs (half of the cost incurred); approved by the board. - Case 2025045651: CPE-audit related failure to respond; recommended $750 civil penalty and $97.50 in costs (half); approved. (Additional proposed discipline items with case numbers, recommended civil penalties and investigation-cost shares were presented and approved in the same manner; the enforcement committee’s summary classified most matters as lack of jurisdiction, lack of evidence, or referral where appropriate.)
The board also addressed two re-presentation cases involving criminal convictions and recommended revocation by consent orders. For case 2024046751 the respondent pleaded guilty to several counts; counsel recommended formal charges and an offered consent order for revocation, which the board approved. In a separate, higher-severity matter, counsel described a respondent who pleaded guilty to multiple federal felonies in a multimillion-dollar scheme; the board approved proceeding to seek revocation or accept an agreed revocation via consent order.
Board counsel and committee chairs emphasized that the enforcement committee had vetted these matters over multiple hours at the committee meeting and in follow-up staff work, and that staff would notify the board of agreed settlements and send agreed-citation letters consistent with the committee’s adopted process.
Votes at a glance - Licensing committee package (CPA exam credit extensions; NACD exam approval; denial of unregistered sponsor credit with penalty-hour waiver; Scalero approved as foreign-education evaluator) — approved (committee-originated motion). - Enforcement: consent-agenda cases 1–12 — approved. - Enforcement: proposed disciplines in cases 13–22 (various civil penalties and partial-cost assessments as presented) — approved. - Enforcement: re-presentation cases 23 (consent revocation) and 24 (consent revocation recommended in light of criminal convictions) — approved.
Board members and counsel noted the committee-first approach used to vet detailed disciplinary matters and encouraged members or observers to review full committee records for case-level detail; counsel also confirmed that staff will add investigation-cost line items in enforcement reports and that staff would track the number of agreed citations issued under the new procedure.
