Printing company Moore Wallace, which suspended its chief financial officer last week stemming from his reaction to a whistle-blower’s charges, announced Friday that it received a subpoena from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut in connection with this matter.
The company said it intends to fully cooperate with the investigation.
In late December the company received an anonymous letter alleging misuse of acquisition-related restructuring charges and other accounting-related actions. An independent review by PricewaterhouseCoopers had “found no evidence to support these allegations” by the time the audit firm had largely completed its work.
Although the company and its outside auditors were satisfied with the documentation, PwC asked the company’s accounting staff, including CFO Mark Hiltwein, for any additional materials they may have had. Hiltwein directed another member of the accounting staff to send to PwC a memorandum about the company’s restructuring processes and plans. The memorandum’s dateline was “May 2003,” noted Moore Wallace, but it was created by Hiltwein this year and appears to be documentation of the kind PwC was requesting.
Moore Wallace’s stock is down about 9 percent since it announced Hiltwein’s suspension.
Last November R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. agreed to pay $2.8 billion in stock for Moore Wallace. After Hiltwein’s suspension was announced, Donnelley said in a press release that the company “is actively monitoring these matters and looks forward to completing the combination with Moore Wallace as early as practicable.”