SAExploration Accused of Accounting Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil fees versus SAExploration Holdings, a publicly traded seismic info acquisition enterprise primarily based in Houston, over an alleged multi-yr accounting fraud that falsely inflated the company’s income and concealed the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In a grievance filed in the Southern District of New York, the SEC claimed senior executives engaged in an “elaborate, 4-yr-extensive fraud.” It names previous chief government officer and chairman Jeffrey Hastings, previous chief economic officer and standard counsel Brent Whiteley, previous CEO and chief operating officer Brian Beatty, and previous vice president of functions Michael Scott as defendants. It also names the spouses of Hastings and Whiteley, Lori Hastings and Thomas O’Neill, as relief defendants.
The executives allegedly entered into a series of seismic info acquisition contracts totaling close to $a hundred and forty million with a purportedly unrelated Alaska-primarily based enterprise that was in simple fact controlled by Hastings and Whiteley. The defendants allegedly misappropriated nearly $six million from SAE and applied the cash for a series of spherical-journey transactions then stole close to $six million for on their own. Whiteley allegedly misappropriated an additional $four million via a different fictitious invoice plan.
The U.S. Attorney’s Business for the Southern District of New York announced criminal fees versus Hastings in a parallel motion.
Hastings was arrested very last month in Anchorage, Alaska. A spokesperson for the enterprise claimed he was place on administrative depart much more than a yr in the past and then resigned.
“As alleged in our grievance, SAE’s executives designed a multi-faceted fraud that enriched executives at the price of investors,” Jennifer Leete, an associate director in the division of enforcement, claimed in a statement. “We will vigorously go after wrongdoing by persons and companies who engage in fraud and mislead investors.”
The SEC is trying to find a long term injunction versus SAE and executives, civil penalties, disgorgement and business office-and-director bars versus the executives.
