Former top executives and two former accounting department directors of Florida- based real estate developer and landowner St. Joe Company was charged by Securities and Exchange Commission for "improperly accounting for the declining value of of its residential real estate developments during the financial crisis."
According to streetinsider.com, Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said "Where specialized accounting rules govern, it is essential that those responsible for the company's accounting and financial reporting be familiar with and properly apply them. St. Joe and its senior executives failed to do so here, and thereby deprived investors of critical information with which to make informed investment decisions."
According to the case filed, the involved executives from St. Joe Company have repeatedly failed to do the proper accounting practices in testing the company's property developments that resulted to failure in taking required documentation on their assets that have been affected by the financial crisis.
Stephen L. Cohen, associate director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said "St. Joe's senior executives continuously failed to ensure that the company's impairment testing included all costs, and that the company's internal controls were properly applied. As a result, St. Joe's financial statements repeatedly failed to accurately reflect the declining value of its most important assets during the financial crisis."
In a report by accountingtoday.com, St. Joe Company has agreed to pay $2.75 million as part of civil penalty to settle the case while its former CEO William Britton Greene agreed to pay $120,000 for penalty and return "ill-gotten gains of $400,000 plus prejudgment interest."
The other executive have also agreed to pay varying penalties and all of them agreed for a cease and desist order form the court in committing or doing any violations in the provisions in which the frmer executives were charged.
The SEC investigation is being carried by Brian R. Palechek, Alfred C. Tierney, James J. Bresnicky, Kristen Dieter, and supervised by J. Lee Buck, II.
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