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SEC Charges Canadian Cannabis Company and Former Senior Executive with Accounting Fraud – SEC.gov

Published

2 years ago

October 25, 2022

Washington D.C., Oct. 24, 2022 —

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Cronos Group Inc., a Nasdaq-listed cannabis company based in Toronto, for improperly accounting for millions of dollars of revenue and for other accounting misconduct in multiple reporting periods. The SEC also charged Cronos’s former Chief Commercial Officer, William Hilson, with fraud and aiding and abetting the company’s violations. In agreeing to settle with Cronos, the Commission determined that the company should not incur a financial penalty, given its timely self-reporting, significant cooperation, and remediation.

According to the SEC’s order, in three separate quarters between 2019 and 2021, Cronos submitted financial statements with the SEC that contained material accounting errors related to, among other things, revenue recognition and goodwill impairment. The order also found that, in one of the quarters, Hilson entered into an undisclosed oral agreement to sell cannabis raw material and to repurchase cannabis product in the following quarter. This agreement was neither known nor accounted for by Cronos, which discovered the $2.3 million accounting error during an internal investigation. After discovering the accounting errors, Cronos promptly reported the misconduct to the SEC and provided extensive cooperation that meaningfully advanced the Commission’s investigation. It also took effective remedial steps to enhance its internal accounting controls.

“It is critically important for issuers to have adequate controls in place before they take on the reporting obligations required of public companies,” said Mark Cave, Associate Director in the SEC’s Enforcement Division. “While today’s order finds that Cronos’s controls were not up to standards when it began filing financial statements with the SEC, Cronos avoided penalties by promptly self-reporting its accounting misconduct as it came to light within the company, cooperating with our investigation, and promptly taking effective remedial steps.”

The SEC’s order against Cronos finds that the company violated the antifraud, reporting, books and records, and internal controls provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC’s order against Hilson finds that he violated the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and further aided and abetted and caused Cronos’s violations of the reporting, books and records, and internal controls provisions.

Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Cronos and Hilson offered to settle the matter by agreeing to cease and desist from future violations of the charged provisions. In addition, Cronos agreed to retain an independent compliance consultant to review, assess, and make recommendations with respect to the firm’s financial reporting and accounting controls. Hilson agreed to a three-year officer and director bar and agreed to be suspended from appearing and practicing before the SEC as an accountant for at least three years. The Commission determined not to impose a financial penalty on Hilson in light of his consent to pay $70,000 (CAD), or approximately $54,000 (USD), to the Ontario Securities Commission for similar conduct.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Kendra Kinnaird and John Higgins, with the assistance of Marlee Miller and Bonnie Kartzman in the Office of International Affairs. The investigation was supervised by Fuad Rana and Kristen Dieter. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Ontario Securities Commission.

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Business

TC Energy cuts cost estimate for Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico

Published

15 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.

It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.

The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)

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BCE reports Q3 loss on asset impairment charge, cuts revenue guidance

Published

15 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.

The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.

“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”

Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.

BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.

The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.

BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.

It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.

The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”

Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)

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Canada Goose reports Q2 revenue down from year ago, trims full-year guidance

Published

15 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.

The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.

Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.

In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.

It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GOOS)

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