The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday credited its risk-based data analytics initiative for resulting in its “highest penalty to date” against a publicly traded company that engaged in improper accounting to boost its quarterly earnings per share (EPS).
Rollins, a pest control services provider, and the company’s then-chief financial officer, Paul Edward Northen, agreed to pay civil penalties of $8 million and $100,000, respectively, to settle charges that unsupported reductions to the company’s accounting reserves were made in amounts sufficient to allow the company to round up reported EPS to the next penny.
