The day after this press release, Ernst & Whinney discovered that Minkow had written several checks to support the validity of the non-existent contracts. Many of them had been written to an associate who later told Ernst & Whinney officials about the fraud. Minkow denied knowing the man, but shortly after the checks were discovered, Ernst & Whinney discovered that Minkow had cut two checks to him for an unrelated matter. When Minkow could not explain the checks, Ernst & Whinney resigned as ZZZZ Best's auditor. However, it did not inform the SEC of its suspicions until a month later.