SPAC Auditor Crackdown Puts Pressure on Second Biggest Player

Hefty regulatory sanctions against Marcum LLP for its audits of blank-check companies is putting an uncomfortable spotlight on its SPAC auditor rival, New Jersey-based Withum Smith+Brown PC.

Like Marcum, Withum rode the special purpose acquisition company audit boom, becoming the top SPAC auditor by volume in 2020 and the second in the following years until the SPAC market crashed.

Withum’s SPAC clients, like Marcum’s, also stumbled over the same tricky warrant accounting issue in the first half of 2021, leading to an unprecedented round of financial statement re-dos. Another pervasive error in accounting for redeemable shares cropped ...