October 27, 2015

The St. Joe Company, a Florida-based real estate developer and landowner, its former top executives, and two former accounting department directors, agreed to pay, collectively, $3.725 million in penalties and disgorgement to settle SEC claims of improperly accounting for the declining value of residential real estate developments during the financial crisis.  According to the SEC’s order instituting settled administrative proceedings, the respondents repeatedly failed to properly apply generally accepted accounting practices in testing St. Joe’s real estate developments for impairment, resulting in the failure to take required write-downs on properties hit hard by the financial crisis.  SEC

Tagged in: Accounting Fraud, Securities Fraud,