Auditors should have confirmed Peregrine’s bank balances: CFTC chairman

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler told lawmakers today that Cedar Falls-based Peregrine Financial Group's outside auditors should have confirmed the now failed brokerage's bank balances.

Peregrine's founder Russell Wasendorf Sr., who was arrested earlier this month, has admitted to forging bank statements and fooling regulators for nearly two decades.

PricewaterhouseCoopers was previously retained to review certain Peregrine financial accounts more than a decade ago as a condition of a settlement with the CFTC, which fined the brokerage and ordered it to get a second independent audit opinion of its books.

“The yearly certified public accountant has to use generally accepted auditing standards, and as I understand it, those auditing standards do require the confirmation of assets,” Gensler told lawmakers at a House Agriculture Committee hearing.