Herbalife Auditor KPMG Resigns As Partner At Firm Is Fired For Providing Inside Information
The halt had to do with a story broken earlier by Dealbook, that Herbalife's auditor KPMG is resigning, due to one of its partners allegedly leaking information to a third party.
KPMG disclosed late Monday that it had fired the partner, who was based in Los Angeles, for providing inside information to an unnamed individual who then traded in shares of several West Coast companies. The firm did not name the fired partner, but described the individual as having led accounts for some clients in the region.
If this is the extent of the story, it's unclear if this matters one way or another to Herbalife shareholders.
Herbalife's statement says the resignation has nothing to do with accounting or anything like that.
The halt started just before the Opening Bell rang at 9:30, and instantly there was all kinds of speculation about whether this had to do with the Herbalife fued between Bill Ackman (who is short the stock) and Carl Icahn (who is massively long the song.
One followup nugget is that according to KPMG the person was not providing inside information with either Bill Ackman (who is short) or Carl Icahn (who is long).
The stock remains halted.
Here's the full statement from Herbalife:
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) today announced that KPMG LLP notified Herbalife on April 8, 2013 that KPMG was resigning, effective immediately, as Herbalife's independent accountant. KPMG stated it had concluded it was not independent because of alleged insider trading in Herbalife's securities by one of KPMG’s former partners who, until April 5, 2013, was the KPMG engagement partner on Herbalife's audit. KPMG advised the Company it resigned as Herbalife's independent accountant solely due to the impairment of KPMG's independence resulting from its now former partner’s alleged unlawful activities and not for any reason related to Herbalife's financial statements, its accounting practices, the integrity of Herbalife's management or for any other reason.
None of KPMG’s audit reports on Herbalife’s financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012 or KPMG’s audit reports on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012 contained an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion, nor was any such report qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principles. In addition, at no point during the three fiscal years ended December 31, 2012 and the subsequent interim period through April 8, 2013 were there any (1) disagreements with KPMG on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or auditing scope or procedures, which disagreement(s), if not resolved to the satisfaction of KPMG, would have caused it to make reference to the subject matter of the disagreement(s) in connection with its reports, or (2) “reportable events” as such term is defined in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K.
As a result of the alleged insider trading activity by its now former partner and KPMG’s resulting resignation on April 8, 2013, KPMG notified Herbalife that KPMG’s independence had been impaired and it had no option but to withdraw its audit reports on Herbalife’s financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and that such reports should no longer be relied upon as a result of KPMG's lack of independence created by the circumstances described above. Herbalife’s Audit Committee and management continue to believe that the Company's financial statements covering the referenced periods fairly present, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the Company as of the end of and for the referenced periods and may continue to be relied upon and that the Company's internal control over financial reporting was effective during these periods.
As a result of the matters described above, Herbalife will be withdrawing the proposal to ratify the appointment of KPMG as Herbalife’s independent registered public accountants for fiscal 2013 originally planned to be submitted to Herbalife’s shareholders at Herbalife’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to be held on April 25, 2013.
For Bill Ackman's full presentation on why he's short the stock, see here >