Comscore Inc. and the former CEO of the data tracking firm have agreed to pay a combined $5.7 million US of fines to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges they fraudulently schemed to overstate the marketing data company’s revenue and misled investors about the company’s financial performance.
The Virginia-based company sells services to media companies that allow them to track and analyze their performance on a variety of digital and conventional media properties. The company calls itself the “trusted currency for planning, transacting, and evaluating media across platforms.”
While the company’s core product is providing accurate ratings and web traffic data to their clients, the SEC says the company’s own financial numbers were far from accurate.
On Tuesday the SEC said the company was found to have “entered into non-monetary transactions for the purpose of improperly increasing its reported revenue,” between the years 2014 and 2016.
The SEC also says the company “made false and misleading public disclosures regarding the company’s customer base and flagship product and that [the CEO] lied to Comscore’s internal accountants and external audit firm.”
The company has agreed to pay a $5 million US penalty and former CEO Serge Matta would pay $700,000.
Matta will also reimburse $2.1 million to Comscore, representing profits from stock sales and incentive-based pay, and agreed to a 10-year ban from serving as a public company officer or director.
Comscore and Matta did not admit or deny wrongdoing.
In a statement, Comscore chairman Brent Rosenthal said “we are pleased to have settled this legacy issue with the SEC.”
“In addition to our commitment to compliance and with this matter behind us, the board and I remain fully focused on the business and are committed to further developing our unique data assets, differentiated data analytics and strong brand equity.”