Leon,
I knew you weren't defending the practice, which is why I apologized up front in case you thought i was responding specifically to what you said. You are also correct in that what the TPGs are doing is not illegal. As with being a CPA, if I do a job and charge a contingent fee to someone, I could potentially be brought up before the Accountancy Board of whatever state I am in and lose my license to practice for doing that. I could also be sued if something goes wrong or bad in a deal that then relied upon my opinion.
CPAs self-regulate and have to undergo peer review every so often to keep and maintain our licenses to practice, as we supposedly adhere to one, common set of rules that all practicing CPAs are supposed to follow. This is where the TPGs really differ, they can all make up their own rules and grading criteria however they want, because no one else forces them to follow anything else. Wouldn't it be interesting if TPGs had a similar peer review requirement and every so often one TPG would have some of their people go over to another TPG and review their work to see if they did it properly and followed the rules. That is where accountability and transparency starts to come in to a practice like this.
BobC
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