Former Chief Financial Officer James Miller of Barrett Business Services has been sentenced to 15 days in federal prison after faking the company’s 2013 annual report.
The court says that Miller “cooked the books” to hide increases in expenses while illegally inflating the company’s worth.
Between 2012 and 2013, Miller made entries that understated the amount workers’ compensation packages had increased, and instead, chose to attribute $12 million to compensation expenses for taxes and other costs. According to the court, Miller’s entries violated accounting principles while concealing important trends from the company’s worth for investors.
After falsifying each entry Miller told staff to initial the entry which made it look like the staff account had made the entries instead. After doing this he sold thousands of company shares, making $2.4 million in just two days.
“As a former auditor and CPA, Mr. Miller understood the importance of accurately disclosing financial information,” said prosecuting U.S. Attorney Gorman. “Nevertheless, he made fraudulent entries 29 times, totaling over $12 million. He ‘cooked the books’ and then certified the financial reports as accurate – keeping shareholders and company executives in the dark about the fraudulent entries for three years.”
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