In this week's C&EN, this news (article by Alexander H. Tullo):
Chemours’s board of directors has completed an internal review of accounting irregularities that led to the ouster of CEO Mark Newman. In February, Newman was placed on leave pending the review. The probe found that $100 million in payments from Chemours to vendors due in the fourth quarter of 2023 were delayed until the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, Chemours’s collection of $260 million in receivables due in the first quarter of this year was pushed to the fourth quarter of 2023. The moves boosted the company’s cash flow numbers. The audit found similar gaming in 2022 of $40 million in payments delayed and $175 million in receivables accelerated. Newman has resigned, but the audit may not close the book on the scandal. More than half a dozen law firms are preparing shareholder suits against the company.
It is remarkable to me that Mr. Newman would decide to attempt this sort of accounting finagling, especially with a publicly traded company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniScribe
ReplyDeleteIt has been tried before: They tried to do a ton of tricks to push debts and missing inventory off into the future, to spread the loss over more financial quarters. These tricks were...very illegal.