TLDR:
- SEC charges former Circor International director, Nicholas Bowerman, with accounting fraud.
- Circor was accused of overestimating its financial performance due to internal manipulation by Bowerman.
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently filed fraud charges against Nicholas Bowerman, a former finance director at Circor International. The SEC alleges that Bowerman manipulated Circor’s internal accounting records, resulting in the technology manufacturing company overstating its financial performance by millions of dollars. Circor was acquired by KKR last year and went private. Bowerman was accused of falsifying financial results of Pipeline Engineering, Circor’s U.K.-based business unit, between 2019 and 2021.
The SEC found that Circor failed to maintain sufficient internal accounting controls relating to financial statement preparation and reconciliation processes. However, the company self-reported the violations and cooperated with the SEC, leading to no civil penalty being imposed. Bowerman was charged with violating various securities laws and the SEC seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement, and civil penalties.