Those external auditors were obviously of the rent a crap Andersen class of twitters for failing to comply with assorted regulations and strict US accounting standards !

Now if the SEC were to fine these wankers and the external audit accountants both a minimum of USD$10 million each per every offence submitted

a/ for filing false and incomplete reports

b/ for failing to lodge accurate or reliable stockholder statements

I can imagine the number of late reports would drop remarkably quickly indeed !

Alas that is something that will never happen as the US regulators and the exchange merchants are deeply in bed with each other most of the time and nine hundred and ninety nine times out of one hundred usually ignore all offences by strictly regulating the investigators and minimal funding of the legal arm to enable prosecution of said offences too !

Nasdaq laid the rules and punishment out a long time ago. If anything, NASDAQ is being "fair". (A four-letter word that begins with "F"...)