Toshiba says SEC completes accounting probe, no penalty

TOKYO - 25 June 2018: Japan’s Toshiba Corp (6502.T) on Monday said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had completed an investigation of its past accounting practices without fining the company.

“We understand that all SEC investigations regarding our accounting have been completed,” a spokesman told Reuters, adding that there was no penalty or censure.

A phone call to the SEC was connected to an answering machine after business hours in the United States, and an email asking for comment did not receive an immediate reply.

Toshiba’s 2015 accounting scandal uncovered widespread accounting errors at the laptops-to-nuclear conglomerate going back to around 2008.

The scandal led the company to recognize huge cost overruns at its now-bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse, and forced the conglomerate to sell its prized memory chip unit for $18 billion.

The company’s shares, which have been relegated to the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s secondary board, last traded down 0.6 percent at 335 yen. The shares had risen around 8 percent in the past month as the company completed the much-delayed sale of its chip unit and unveiled a higher-than-expected stock buyback plan using the proceeds.