The American sports equipment manufacturer Under Armor announced Monday that it had spent $ 9 million to settle a dispute with the gendarme of the American Stock Exchange, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which accuses the group of accounting fraud.
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By paying this sum, Under Armor, which notably sponsors American football superstar Tom Brady, boxer Anthony Joshua, or basketball player Stephen Curry, puts an end to the proceedings without acknowledging his guilt.
“The SEC teams have confirmed that they have no intention of recommending that any enforcement action be taken against the executive chairman of the board, the chief financial officer, or any other member of management in relation to this investigation, ”
the group said in a statement.
SEC believes Under Armor sought to mislead investors by engaging in fraudulent practices between Q3 2015 and Q4 2016 that allowed it to inflate revenue to comply analysts' forecasts.
In particular, the company would have included in its quarterly accounts deliverable orders for later dates while attributing the growth in its revenues to other factors.
"A deceptive painting"
“When publicly traded companies describe how they are achieving their bottom line, they should not misrepresent critical investor information,”
Kurt Gottschall, director of the SEC's Denver regional office, said in a statement. According to Kurt Gottschall,
"Under Armor has created a misleading picture of the drivers of its financial results and has hidden known factors of uncertainty about its business
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On Wall Street, the title of Under Armor rose 1.2% in electronic trading following the close.
