People who know, know BDO has admitted to fraud

By Rob Janicki
Have you seen any of the BDO commercials recently aired on national television?  BDO is an accounting firm and their latest series of advertising was built around the concept of "People who know, know BDO", whatever that was meant to imply.

Apparently BDO knew a lot more than it let on to it's clients.
[...]  Accounting firm BDO USA has admitted it was part of a fraud that generated $6.5 billion in phony tax losses and has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a federal investigation into its promotion of abusive tax shelters from 1997 to 2003.  As part of a deferred prosecution agreement with BDO announced today,  U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara filed a tax fraud conspiracy charge against the firm, but will move to have that charge dismissed this coming December, provided BDO continues to cooperate in his criminal investigation and meets certain other conditions. Chicago-based BDO, formerly known as BDO Seidman, is the seventh largest accounting firm in the United States. [...]

[...]  As a result of the criminal investigation, five former partners or principals of BDO have pleaded guilty to tax crimes and are awaiting sentencing.  [...]