Debtor Audit Information

Under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-8, 119 Stat. 23 (2005), the USTP is authorized to contract with independent firms to perform audits of individual chapter 7 and chapter 13 cases. The purpose of the audit is to determine the accuracy, veracity, and completeness of petitions, schedules, and other information required to be provided by the debtor under sections 521 and 1322 of title 11.

The USTP is authorized to randomly designate for audit a specified uniform percentage of consumer bankruptcy cases per federal judicial district and to designate cases for exception audit in which the income or expenditures of a debtor deviate from the statistical norm of the district in which the case was filed. By statute, a debtor is required to cooperate with the audit.

Each year, by delegation from the Attorney General, the U.S. Trustee Program issues an annual public report on the aggregate results of the audits, including the percentage of cases, by district, in which a material misstatement of income or expenditures is reported. These reports are available on the Reports & Studies page of this Web site.