Dollar General CFO to Pay $1.2M to SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that the former chief financial officer of discount retailer Dollar General Corp. will pay $1.2 million to settle charges that he engaged in accounting fraud and insider trading.

Brian Burr neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee. In addition to the civil penalties, he is barred from serving as an officer of a public company for five years.

According to the SEC, Dollar General's accounting staff found that the company should have recognized $13.4 million in import freight expenses between 1999 and 2000. By keeping those expenses off the books, the SEC said that the company was able to meet analyst expectations, and its executives collected hefty bonuses.

When the company issued a restatement several years later, it reduced income by more than $140 million. Dollar General paid another $10 million in April 2005 to settle its own set of regulatory charges brought by the SEC. That same month, settlements were also reached with four other executives, including former chief executive officer Cal Turner, former controller Randy Sanderson, former president Bobby Carpenter and former accounting manager Stephen Jones.

Burr was also charged with engaging in insider trading for selling stock options just before the April 2001 announcement that the company would be restating its earnings.

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