Deloitte & Touche, one of the Big Four accounting firms, agreed today to pay $1 million to settle accusations that it botched an audit of a pharmaceutical company by entrusting it to a partner it knew to be a poor auditor.

The penalty was issued by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and was the first use of its disciplinary powers against a large accounting firm. Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which created the board, the money is to be used for accounting scholarships.

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