Alere, a Waltham based diagnostic firm, agreed to pay $13 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to settle charges that it committed accounting fraud. The charges state that the company, through its subsidiary in South Korea inflated their revenue by recognizing revenue for products that were still being stored in the company’s warehouse or otherwise not delivered to the customer.
Another charge on the company is that the company’s subsidiaries in India and Colombo obtained or retained business by making improper payments/bribing government officials in those countries. The company failed to maintain adequate internal controls to prevent such payments and the company also inaccurately recorded the payments in its books.
The company neither admitted nor denied the findings but has agreed to pay $13 million, out of which $9.2 million is the penalty amount.
The question though is, isn’t the fact that they are paying the SEC accepting guilt?
