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posted by Fnord666 on Friday August 23 2019, @01:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the that's-a-lot-of-gas dept.

Disney whistleblower told SEC the company inflated revenue for years

A former Walt Disney Co. accountant says she has filed a series of whistleblower tips with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging the company has materially overstated revenue for years.

Sandra Kuba, formerly a senior financial analyst in Disney's revenue-operations department who worked for the company for 18 years, alleges that employees working in the parks-and-resorts business segment systematically overstated revenue by billions of dollars by exploiting weaknesses in the company's accounting software.

[...] A Disney spokesperson said the company had reviewed the whistleblower's claims and found that they were "utterly without merit."

Kuba's whistleblower filings, which have been reviewed by MarketWatch, outline several ways employees allegedly boosted revenue, including recording fictitious revenue for complimentary golf rounds or for free guest promotions. Another alleged action Kuba described in her SEC filing involved recording revenue for $500 gift cards at their face value even when guests paid a discounted rate of $395.

[...] Kuba's filing alleges that flaws in the accounting software made the manipulation difficult to trace, though the consequences could be significant. In just one financial year, 2008-09, Disney's annual revenue could have been overstated by as much as $6 billion, Kuba's whistleblower filing alleges. The parks-and-resorts business segment reported total revenue of $10.6 billion in 2009, according to its annual report filed with the SEC.

Also at Deadline and Bloomberg.

Related: Disney Asks Employees to Contribute Towards DisneyPAC, TPP
Disney to Buy 21st Century Fox Assets for $52.4 Billion in Historic Hollywood Merger
Disney May Be Trying to Buy More of Hulu From AT&T's WarnerMedia


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 23 2019, @03:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 23 2019, @03:03PM (#884139)

    What kind of cartoon comedy are you talking about trying to have Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck do accounting

    Well, better that pair doing the dodgy accounts than Pinoccio if the SEC come a-calling....