Toymaker Mattel agrees to pay $3.5 million to settle SEC costs By Reuters

By Chris Prentice

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -California-based Toymaker Mattel Inc (NASDAQ:) has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) costs over monetary misstatements in 2017, the company mentioned on Friday.

Mattel, which makes Barbie and Fisher-Worth toys, incorrectly reported its losses through the third and fourth quarters of 2017 as a consequence of tax reporting errors, the SEC mentioned. The difficulty went uncorrected till November 2019 and the shortage of inner management for monetary reporting associated to the error remained undisclosed. The corporate’s chief govt officer and the audit committee weren’t instructed of the error.

A spokesperson for Mattel, which didn’t admit or deny the SEC’s findings, mentioned the agency is happy to have the matter behind it. Shares of Mattel fell 1% in prolonged commerce on Friday.

The SEC mentioned it’s individually initiating litigation in opposition to a former audit companion at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to find out whether or not he engaged in improper skilled conduct and violated auditor independence guidelines.

Auditor Joshua Abrahams did not confirm that the uncorrected $109 million error was documented, although he knew about it, the SEC alleged. He additional failed to take care of auditor independence by advising Mattel’s then-chief monetary officer about who must be chosen for a senior place on the firm.

A spokesperson for PWC declined to remark.

Thomas Zaccaro, an lawyer for Abrahams, described the fees as “meritless” and mentioned “he’ll vigorously contest these baseless allegations.”

The matter can be scheduled for a public listening to earlier than the Fee, the SEC mentioned.