BDO’s Audit Missteps Matter, AmTrust Shareholders Tell Justices

Investors of specialty insurer AmTrust Financial Services Inc. are urging the US Supreme Court to let stand a lower court decision finding auditors liable when they fail to protect shareholders.

Lawyers representing the investors pressed the high court in a brief filed Wednesday to deny a petition to review a US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision that found AmTrust’s auditor, BDO USA P.C., should face fraud claims over its botched work for the insurer.

At issue is whether shareholders consider auditor mistakes as material, or significant, information that could alter their investment choices. Not every breach of ...