(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the former chief financial officer of Barrett Business Services Inc. for his role in an accounting fraud involving BBSI\u2019s workers\u2019 compensation expenses. The SEC also charged BBSI in the accounting fraud and charged the company\u2019s former controller for his role in improperly approving certain of the CFO\u2019s accounting entries. Both BBSI and the former controller agreed to settle the Commission\u2019s charges against them. <\/p>\n
The SEC\u2019s complaint against BBSI\u2019s former CFO James D. Miller, filed in federal district court in the Western District of Washington, alleges that Miller manipulated BBSI\u2019s accounting records to hide the fact that its workers\u2019 compensation expense was increasing relative to its revenue. According to the complaint, Miller took steps to conceal from BBSI\u2019s independent auditor a third-party actuarial report concluding that BBSI needed to add tens of millions of dollars to its workers\u2019 compensation liability. BBSI\u2019s stock dropped 32 percent when the Vancouver, Washington-based firm announced it needed to restate its financial results to reflect increased workers\u2019 compensation expenses.<\/p>\n
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Western District of Washington today announced criminal charges against Miller.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvestors depend on public company executives to be up front about their company\u2019s financial condition, not to use accounting gimmicks to hide worrisome trends,\u201d said Erin E. Schneider, Associate Director of the SEC\u2019s San Francisco Regional Office. \u201cAs alleged in our complaint, Miller betrayed the trust placed in him by the company and its investors by engaging in a number of accounting shenanigans designed to manipulate BBSI\u2019s financial results.\u201d <\/p>\n
The SEC today instituted a settled administrative proceeding against BBSI for violations of the antifraud, books and records, internal accounting controls, and reporting provisions of the federal securities laws, and former Controller Mark Cannon for books and records violations. Without admitting or denying the SEC\u2019s findings, BBSI agreed to pay a $1.5 million civil penalty and Cannon agreed to pay a $20,000 civil penalty and to be suspended from appearing and practicing before the Commission as an accountant, which includes not participating in the financial reporting or audits of public companies. The SEC\u2019s order permits Cannon to apply for reinstatement after one year. <\/p>\n
BBSI CEO Michael Elich, who was not charged by the SEC, has reimbursed the company for $20,800 in cash bonuses he received during the period of the alleged accounting violations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the former chief financial officer of Barrett Business Services Inc. for his role in an accounting fraud involving BBSI\u2019s workers\u2019 compensation expenses. The SEC also charged BBSI in the accounting fraud and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,16048],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedgeco-networks-press-releases","category-hedgeco-news","category-hedgecovest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65833,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65832\/revisions\/65833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}