Officials at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has ended its investigation into accounting matters stemming from 2003 restatements, and will not take enforcement action against the company.
In addition, the SEC has closed the investigations into the actions of the company’s former chief financial officer, Robert Tieken, and former chief accounting officer, Stephanie Bergeron. Again, no enforcement action will be taken in either of those cases.
The tire maker initially disclosed the SEC probe in November 2003, and announced that the SEC staff had issued a “Wells Notice” in August 2005. The regulator was investigating potential accounting problems disclosed in Goodyear’s restatement of financial results, announced in October 2003, and in subsequent public filings.
Goodyear restated earnings by $100 million in 2003, which covered the periods from 1998 through 2002 and for the first and second quarters of 2003. The restatement was aimed at recording adjustments mainly caused by a 1999 enterprise resource planning system implementation and errors in intercompany billing systems.
Last week, U.S. District Court Judge John Adams dismissed a class action lawsuit against Goodyear, based on the 2003 restatement, that alleged that securities fraud was committed by the tire maker and certain current and former officers.