December 13, 2017
The PCAOB’s Brand New Slate
Yesterday, the SEC announced the appointment of Bill Duhnke as Chair and Jay Brown, Kathleen Hamm, Jim Kaiser and Duane DesParte as Board members of the PCAOB. This is the first time since the PCAOB was initially formed 15 years ago that an entire slate of Board Members was tapped at once. Pretty wild. Here’s SEC Chair Clayton’s statement.
“Financials Staleness Calculator”
A nice companion for our “Disclosure Deadlines Handbook” is this “financials staleness calculator” from Latham & Watkins and KPMG. This tool advances any date that falls on a weekend or holiday to the next business day; accommodates any fiscal year end; and can make the calculation outside of the current year…
Perk Enforcement Case: CEO’s “Personal Piggy Bank”
Yesterday, the SEC announced an enforcement action against Provectus for insufficient controls surrounding the reporting & disclosure of travel and entertainment expenses submitted by its executives. The former CEO swindled millions using fake or non-existent documentation – the former CFO’s take was closer to $200k.
Here’s an excerpt from the SEC’s press release:
The SEC separately charged Dees in federal district court in Knoxville, Tennessee, alleging that, while Dees was Provectus’ CEO, he treated the company “as his personal piggy bank.” According to the complaint, Dees submitted hundreds of falsified records to Provectus to obtain $3.2 million in cash advances and reimbursements for business travel he never took. Instead, he concealed the perks and used cash advances to pay for personal expenses such as cosmetic surgery for female friends, restaurant tips, and personal travel.
As noted in this blog by Steve Quinlivan, the company itself was not hit with a penalty – perhaps due to the board’s cooperation in the investigation. Steve notes that a somewhat similar case drew a $750k penalty from a company about 30 months ago. We’ve added this case to our list of perk enforcement actions in our “Perks” Practice Area…
– Broc Romanek