22.09.2015

Ex-Terex CFO penalised

Joseph F. Apuzzo, the Terex chief financial officer between 1999 and 2002 has been fined $100,000 for aiding and abetting a fraudulent accounting scheme with United Rentals.

The case began in 2007, when the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges for his role in a scheme that involved two sale-and-leaseback deals with United Rentals and its former chief financial officer, Michael Nolan.

Apuzzo and his lawyer managed to have the case dismissed when it reached court in 2010, See Case against former Terex CFO dismissed but in 2012 an appeals court reinstated the law suit, which was finally heard last week by Judge Alvin Thompson of the U.S. District Court for Connecticut.

The complaint alleged that Apuzzo substantially assisted United Rentals and Nolan in implementing the fraudulent scheme by, among other things, signing agreements with the company that he knew, or should have known, were designed to hide the rental company’s ongoing risks and financial obligations relating to the sale-leaseback transactions, and directing or approving the issuance of inflated invoices that he knew or should have known would be used to inflate United’s gain on the transactions.

Apuzzo, who never faced any criminal charges- unlike the United executives - did not admit or deny allegations against him. He is also suspended from appearing or practising as an accountant for five years. In 2008 United Rentals reached a $14 million settlement with the SEC.
See SEC files agasint Apuzzo
Fraud charges filed agasint Milne