Archive

June 17, 2019

Audit and accounting firm KPMG LLP will pay a $50 million SEC penalty to resolve charges that the firm revised its audit workpapers in an effort to improve KPMG’s performance in PCAOB inspections planned for the audits in question after wrongfuly obtaining PCAOB lists of inspection targets.  The SEC also found that numerous KPMG audit professionals cheated on internal training exams.  In addition to the penalty, KPMG agreed to undertake specified compliance measures, including the retention of an independent consultant.  Former KPMG officials face individual criminal charges.  SEC

May 3, 2019

New Hampshire-based GT Advanced Technologies, Inc. and its then-CEO Thomas Gutierrez have consented to entry of an order by the SEC finding that they publicly misrepresented the status of an agreement the company had with Apple to supply "sapphire glass" for iPhones, falsely stating that the company expected to hit performance targets under its agreement with Apple, securing funding from Apple and achieving sales projections.  In fact, the company had repeatedly failed to meet Apple's performance milestones and faced liability to repay more than $300 million that Apple had advanced to GT.  GT was also found to have misclassified this Apple debt in its financial reports.  GT later filed for bankruptcy protection.  The parties agreed to cease and desist from further violations, and Gutierrez agreed to pay a $140,000 monetary sanction.  SEC

April 25, 2019

Indianapolis-based trucking company Celadon Group, Inc., has agreed to pay $42.2 million in restitution to shareholders, $7 million of which will be credited to a disgorgement pursuant to agreement with the SEC, to settle allegations of accounting fraud.  Celadon was alleged to have avoided the recognition of $20 million in impairment charges and losses by recording a series of equipment trades as sales at inflated values.  Celadon management is further alleged to have falsely stated to its auditors that the equipment was sold at fair market value. Celadon has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement calling for specific compliance measures and cooperation in ongoing investigation of the accounting fraud.  SEC; DOJ; USAO SD IN

March 11, 2019

Having been charged in January, 2018, the former national managing partner for audit quality at firm KPMG LLP, David Middendorf, was convicted after trial for scheming to acquire and use information from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (the “PCAOB”) about which KPMG audits the PCAOB would be reviewing in the upcoming year. The PCAOB, which is overseen by the SEC, inspects the largest U.S. accounting firms on an annual basis, choosing a subset of the firm's audits for close inspection. Middendorf and others at KPMG conspired with PCAOB employees including co-defendant Jeffrey Wada, to obtain PCAOB's plans for inspections of KPMG audits, enabling KPMG to analyze and revise audit workpapers in an effort to improve KPMG's performance in PCAOB inspections. USAO SDNY

December 21, 2018

Audit firm Crowe LLP and associated individuals have settled SEC charges arising from significant failures in audits of Corporate Resource Services, Inc., which went bankrupt in 2015 following the disclosure of $100 million in unpaid payroll tax liabilities.  The SEC found that Crowe's audit team identified pervasive risks in its audit of Corporate Resource Services, but failed to take required steps in response.  Crowe will pay a penalty of $1.5 million and retain an independent compliance consultant.  SEC

September 25, 2018

Edward J. DiMaria, the former chief financial officer of Bankrate, Inc., a publicly traded company, plead guilty and was sentenced to ten years in prison for orchestrating an accounting and securities fraud scheme that caused more than $25 million in shareholder losses.  DiMaria admitted that between 2010 and 2014 he took actions to artificially inflate Bankrate’s earnings by leaving millions of dollars in unsupported expense accruals on Bankrate’s books, then selectively reversing those accruals in later quarters to boost earnings, as well as misrepresenting other company expenses.  DiMaria lied to Bankrate's independent auditors to conceal the fraud.  As a result of the accounting fraud, Bankrate’s financial statements filed with the SEC were materially misstated.  S.D. Fla. USAO; DOJ

July 2, 2018

The SEC charged global engineering and construction company KBR Inc. with inflating a key, non-financial statement performance metric known as work in backlog.  KBR agreed to pay a $2.5 million penalty to settle the SEC’s charges. According to the SEC’s order, KBR’s public disclosures of its work in “backlog” were important to investors because the metric was supposed to represent the amount of revenue that KBR expected to receive in the future from “firm orders” under previously awarded contracts. However, the SEC’s order found that in the second quarter of 2012, KBR improperly included $459 million in its publicly disclosed backlog for a pipe fabrication and modular assembly contract in Canada, even though KBR had not actually received - and the counterparty was not obligated to provide - any orders under the contract. SEC

June 28, 2018

Edward J. DiMaria pled guilty to multiple counts of corporate fraud related an accounting and securities fraud scheme that caused over $25 million in shareholder losses. DiMaria was the former CFO of Bankrate Inc. a financial services company that was formally headquartered in North Palm Beach, Florida. DiMaria inflated the company’s earnings that misled shareholders, auditors, and the SEC. DiMaria is required to pay $21 million in restitution to Bankrate shareholders. DOJ

April 30, 2018

The SEC announced that Japan-based Panasonic Corp. will pay more than $143 million to resolve charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and accounting fraud violations involving its global avionics business. According to the SEC’s order, Panasonic’s U.S. subsidiary, Panasonic Avionics Corp. (PAC), a provider of in-flight entertainment and communication systems, offered a lucrative consulting position to a government official at a state-owned airline to induce the official to help PAC in obtaining and retaining business from the airline. At the time it orchestrated the bribery scheme, PAC was negotiating two agreements with the airline valued at more than $700 million. PAC ultimately retained the official and paid approximately $875,000 for a position that required little to no work, using an unrelated third-party vendor to conceal the payments. SEC

March 27, 2018

The SEC charged California-based energy storage and power delivery product manufacturer Maxwell Technologies, Inc. and one of its former sales executives Van Andrews in a fraudulent revenue recognition scheme designed to inflate the company’s reported financial results. According to the SEC’s order, Maxwell Technologies prematurely recognized revenue from the sale of ultracapacitors - small energy storage and power delivery products - in order to better meet analyst expectations. Andrews, a former Maxwell sales executive and corporate officer, allegedly inflated the company’s revenues by entering into secret side deals with customers and by falsifying records in order to conceal the scheme from Maxwell’s finance and accounting personnel and external auditors. Maxwell’s former CEO David Schramm and former controller James DeWitt also were charged for failing adequately to respond to red flags that should have alerted them to the misconduct. The SEC’s order found that Maxwell and Andrews violated antifraud, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions of the federal securities laws and that Andrews caused certain violations by Maxwell. Both Maxwell and Andrews consented to the SEC’s order without admitting or denying the allegations and agreed to pay penalties of $2.8 million and $50,000, respectively. Andrews also agreed to be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years. Without admitting or denying the findings that they caused certain violations by Maxwell, Schramm agreed to pay a total of nearly $80,000 in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and penalty and DeWitt agreed to pay a $20,000 penalty. SEC