The U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating possible accounting fraud as a domestic follow-up to the scandal that has enveloped Westinghouse Electric Company's Japanese parent company Toshiba, two sources have said.
The accounting scandal in Japan included acknowledgment in a 334-page internal report that Toshiba padded its books for seven years to shield losses from the public – including investors. Part of the wrongdoing included falsifying documents that were part of a corporate bond issuance. The Japanese Times reported that some of the wrongdoing also included incorrect reporting on large projects, such as “nuclear, hydroelectric, wind-power equipment, air traffic control and railway systems.” At issue was falsified reporting through an accounting procedure known as “percentage of completion,” which is used to estimate the value of unfinished projects.
Toshiba has already been fined a record $62.1 million by Japanese authorities. Their accounting firm Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC was fined $17.4 million and barred from signing new clients for three months.
U.S. authorities have jurisdiction over the case, because Toshiba's nuclear division, Westinghouse Electric, is based in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. Ernst & Young also audited the Westinghouse Electric business. U.S. authorities have yet to make the probe public, although media reports widely assert that two sources have indicated a probe has begun.
According to several reports, Toshiba was also concerned about losses that Westinghouse may have incurred in the aftermath of the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi generating station in Japan, which prompted a global slowdown in the nuclear power industry.
The 334-page report also notes that Toshiba failed to disclose more than $100 million in losses at Westinghouse from 2013 that stemmed from Levy County Florida nuclear plant project that was canceled in 2013.