Schellman acquires Scott Perry CPA firm

Schellman & Co., a Top 100 Firm based in Tampa, Florida, is expanding its cryptocurrency audit services by acquiring the firm of Scott S. Perry, CPA PLLC, based in Bellevue, Washington.

Perry’s firm specializes in digital certificate authority audits, also known as WebTrust for Certification Authorities). He has also participated in working groups applying these concepts to federal identity management, Trust over IP (verifiable credential and self-sovereign identity), drone technologies, and more. Perry’s firm works with several large companies including DigiCert, DocuSign, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. The firm has also collaborated with federal government agencies such as the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Schellman received funding in September from the private equity firm Lightyear Capital and split off a new technology and cybersecurity venture known as Schellman Compliance LLC from the CPA firm part of Schelmman (see story).The acquisition of Perry’s firm fits into Schellman’s growth plans for 2022 in expanding specialized services.

“While Schellman does have a history of performing assessments for SSL certificate authorities and DNS providers, we believe the application of encryption and certificate management assessment techniques to new domains presents an enormous growth opportunity,” said Doug Barbin, managing principal and chief growth officer at Schellman, in a statement. “Scott Perry’s firm is widely respected in this domain. We believe the combination of its expertise with our global client base and more than 300 IT audit professionals will put us in position to lead this niche market as it grows beyond websites into financial technology, blockchain, government, transportation, and digital life applications.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Schellman & Co. ranked No. 65 on Accounting Today’s 2021 list of the Top 100 Firms. The firm had $66.8 million in annual revenue in 2020. Schellman has 16 partners and 362 employees, while Perry’s firm has one partner and one other employee.

The combined firm hopes to advance its services in encryption, certificate management, and cryptocurrency audits.

“Since our foundation, Schellman has always striven to forge our own niche in the technology compliance industry, and Scott has done something similar,” said Schellman CEO Avani Desai in a statement Monday. “We share that idea for a unique approach, as well as a mutual passion for compliance, and so this could not make for a better fit. Our collaboration will now allow us to continue helping our clients communicate trust to their customers and stakeholders in a newly enhanced way. Between his expertise and our resources, the way towards our progress is now paved, and we are looking forward to the opportunities we’ll have in the future.”

Upon completion of the merger, Perry will become a principal at Schellman and take charge of launching the firm’s new practice in crypto and digital trust services.

“Having already invested 17 years in cryptographic-based audits, this new step feels natural,” Perry said in a statement. “In leveraging my firm’s experience, Schellman is now enabled to fully realize the potential of this exploding marketplace. Together, we will take an immediate leadership position in Web 3.0 technology audits and governance services.”