Toshiba says SEC completes accounting probe, no penalty

[June 25, 2018]  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp on Monday said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had completed an investigation of its past accounting practices without fining the company.

A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen outside an electronics retail store in Tokyo, Japan, February 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

"We understand that all SEC investigations regarding our accounting have been completed," a spokesman told Reuters, adding that there was no penalty or censure.

A phone call to the SEC was connected to an answering machine after business hours in the United States, and an email asking for comment did not receive an immediate reply.

Toshiba's 2015 accounting scandal uncovered widespread accounting errors at the laptops-to-nuclear conglomerate going back to around 2008.

The scandal led the company to recognize huge cost overruns at its now-bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse, and forced the conglomerate to sell its prized memory chip unit for $18 billion.

The company's shares, which have been relegated to the Tokyo Stock Exchange's secondary board, last traded down 0.6 percent at 335 yen. The shares had risen around 8 percent in the past month as the company completed the much-delayed sale of its chip unit and unveiled a higher-than-expected stock buyback plan using the proceeds.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Tom Hogue)

[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.