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Cohen & Co to acquire Tassi and Company

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Cohen & Co, a Top 50 Firm based in Cleveland, is acquiring Tassi and Company, based in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

Tassi and Company provides accounting and consulting services tailored to the real estate industry. The deal is expected to close at the end of March and will enhance Cohen’s national real estate service offering and expand its presence in the Chicago market.Tasso was founded by Joe Tassi in 1990 and has approximately 35 employees. The firm serves real estate owners, developers, managers and investors. It offers outsourced fund and partnership accounting, property management and development accounting, construction draw accounting and tax services.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cohen has 88 partners and will be adding three people from Tassi — Joe Tassi, Terri Nietzel and Gretchen Sampson — as new partners.

Cohen & Co. ranked No. 43 on Accounting Today’s 2025 list of the Top 100 Firms, with 187.51 million in annual revenue and 781 employees.

 “We are excited to welcome Tassi and Company to our firm,” says Cohen & Co CEO Chris Bellamy in a statement Thursday. “The real estate and construction industry is an important growth area and one that we’ve made a priority for investment. This transaction will provide additional expertise and scale for the benefit of our clients, as well as new career path opportunities for employees of both firms.”

 “Cohen & Co shares our core cultural and entrepreneurial philosophies rooted in client service and taking care of our people,” said Tassi in a statement. “This is the natural next step for our firm as we plan for our future. We are impressed with Cohen & Co and are confident our clients and teammates will benefit from their leadership and strategic vision.”

The Tassi team will remain in their current Deer Park, Illinois, office space. Combined with Cohen & Co’s existing downtown Loop location, Chicago will becomes one of Cohen & Co’s largest geographic markets.

 Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP served as legal counsel to Cohen & Co. Creative Planning, LLC served as legal counsel to Tassi and Company.

 Cohen & Co announced a strategic growth investment from Lovell Minnick Partners, a private equity firm, last October. The firm’s most recent acquisition was Cleveland-based Tax and Wealth Management, Inc., which closed in January of this year.

In 2023, Cohen added Szymkowiak & Associates CPAs and its affiliate, Pear Consultants LLC, in Buffalo, New York, as well as BBD’s Investment Management Group, a Philadelphia-based provider of audit and tax services for registered and unregistered investment companies. In 2017, it added Arthur Bell, a firm that specialized in auditing mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, hedge funds and investment advisors. 

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Accounting

CrowdStrike says DOJ, SEC sent inquiries on firm accounting

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CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. said U.S. officials have asked for information related to the accounting of deals it’s made with some customers and said the cybersecurity firm is cooperating with the inquiry.

The Austin, Texas-based company said in a filing Wednesday that it has gotten “requests for information” from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission “relating to the company’s recognition of revenue and reporting of ARR for transactions with certain customers.” ARR refers to annual recurring revenue, a measure of earnings from subscriptions.

The company said the federal officials have also sought information related to a CrowdStrike update last year that crashed Windows operating systems around the world.

“The company is cooperating and providing information in response to these requests,” the filing states.

U.S. prosecutors and regulators have been investigating a $32 million deal between CrowdStrike and a technology distributor, Carahsoft Technology Corp., to provide cybersecurity tools to the Internal Revenue Service, Bloomberg News first reported in February. The IRS never purchased or received the products, Bloomberg News earlier reported.

The investigators are probing what senior CrowdStrike executives may have known about the $32 million deal and are examining other transactions made by the cybersecurity firm, Bloomberg News reported in May.

Asked for comment about the filing, CrowdStrike spokesperson Brian Merrill said, “As we have told Bloomberg repeatedly, this is old news and we stand by the accounting of the transaction.” 

A lawyer for Carahsoft previously declined to comment on the federal investigations, and representatives didn’t respond to subsequent requests for comment about them.

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Elon Musk urges Americans take action to ‘kill’ Trump tax cut bill

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Tech titan Elon Musk ratcheted up his offensive against Donald Trump’s signature tax bill on Wednesday, urging that Americans contact their lawmakers to “KILL” the legislation.

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,” Musk wrote in a social media post. “Bankrupting America is NOT ok!”

The post came one day after Musk lashed out at the tax bill, describing it as a budget-busting “disgusting abomination” as Republican fiscal hawks stepped up criticism of the massive fiscal package. 

Trump hasn’t publicly responded to Musk’s comments, but the White House put out a statement Wednesday saying the legislation “unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth.” 

And House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Musk is “dead wrong” about the bill and that the tax cuts will pay for themselves through economic growth.

Musk’s public condemnation pits him against the president at a critical time as Trump is personally lobbying holdouts on the bill. His campaign against the legislation threatens to stiffen resistance and delay enactment of the tax cuts and debt ceiling increase. 

Musk has attacked the legislation days after leaving a temporary assignment leading the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to cut federal spending. The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer’s high-profile role in the Trump administration eroded his business brand and sales of his company’s electric vehicles plunged. 

The House-passed version of the tax and spending bill would add $2.4 trillion to U.S. budget deficits over the next decade, according to an estimate released Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO’s calculation reflects a $3.67 trillion decrease in expected revenues and a $1.25 trillion decline in spending over the decade through 2034, relative to baseline projections. The score doesn’t account for any potential boost to the economy from the bill, which Johnson and Trump argue would offset the revenue losses. 

Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of about $377 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has become a crucial financial backer of the Republican party. After making modest donations most years, Musk became the biggest U.S. political donor in 2024, giving more than $290 million.

Johnson said Musk had promised to help reelect Republicans just a day before savaging Trump’s bill. Musk did not respond to a request for comment. 

Most of Musk’s giving was aimed at electing Trump but he also supported congressional candidates. America PAC, the super political action committee that Musk largely funded, spent $18.5 million in 17 separate House races. Though that total pales in comparison to the roughly $255 million he spent backing Trump, the spending means a lot in a congressional election, where challengers on average raise less than $1 million.

Control of the House will likely be decided by the outcome of fewer than two dozen close races in the 2026 midterm elections. The GOP’s chances of holding their majority would suffer a major blow if Musk were to withdraw his financial support.

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Accounting

M&A Watch: PE fuels deals for CRI, UHY, Prosperity

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Three private equity-backed firms have made deals: Carr, Riggs & Ingram has expanded into East Texas by merging in Axley & Rode; UHY is continuing its expansion in St. Louis by adding Sabino & Co.; and Prosperity Partners moved into Vermont by adding Danaher, Attig & Plante. Meanwhile, Top 100 Firm Sensiba has acquired Australia-based cybersecurity audit and risk assurance firm AssuranceLab.

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