Twice a year, the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy (TSBPA) publicly recognizes two groups of honorees at a ceremony in Austin. Those attending who have completed the requirements to become Certified Public Accountants take the CPA oath and receive their individual certificates. And those who have maintained their CPA licenses for fifty years are also publicly recognized, and a summary of their accomplishments is read.
At this ceremony, 300 newly licensed CPAs walked across the stage to receive their certificates, and thirty-four fifty-year licensees in attendance were recognized before an audience of approximately fifteen hundred people.
It was an awesome feeling as I watched the new CPAs take their oath of office, in which they swear to support the Constitution and laws of the United States and the State of Texas, and to comply with the rules promulgated under the Public Accountancy Act.
Since I completed my CPA requirements in 1976, I attended the ceremony in Austin on June 13th at the Palmer Events Center as a fifty-year licensee. In my introduction, the speaker noted that I am publicly known as the “Citigroup Whistleblower” and that the Texas Society of CPAs named me “CPA of the Year” in 2012. It was also noted that I gave the keynote address at the 2012 annual conference of the Texas Society of CPAs and that I had retired as a professor of accounting from the University of Texas at Dallas. I was publicly lauded for maintaining the ethics and integrity of a CPA – the same ethics that changed the trajectory of my career and allowed me to speak to so many people about doing what’s right.
Although there wasn’t a public ceremony when I received my CPA, I still remember swearing the oath in writing and receiving the certificate in the mail. I knew that oath meant I had to follow the highest ethics and integrity, which I have always attempted to do. Even when I was with Citigroup, and I saw many professional employees deliberately ignore the wrongdoing that was occurring, I knew it was my ethical responsibility to report the wrongdoing and fraud, which ultimately hurt so many innocent individuals and companies.
After the ceremony, I told some of the new CPAs who came up to meet me that they always need to remember to follow the highest ethics in whatever situation they find themselves in.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip. While there, my wife and I also went by the University of Texas at Austin campus, where my wife earned her BS in Elementary Education and I received my MBA many years ago. Obviously, the campus has changed dramatically since we were there!
Richard Bowen is widely known as the Citigroup whistleblower. As Business Chief Underwriter for Citigroup during the housing bubble financial crisis meltdown, he repeatedly warned Citi executive management and the board about fraudulent behavior within the organization. The company certified poor mortgages as quality mortgages and sold them to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other investors.
