Intuit Inc. announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its investigation into the software maker's stock option accounting practices without taking any punitive action.The SEC began its Intuit inquiry in June and in August, Intuit announced that based on its internal investigation of the handling of its stock options dating back to 1997, it wouldn’t need to restate past profits.
The U.S. Attorney's office subpoenaed Intuit for information relating to its stock options around the time that the SEC began its investigation, but Intuit said in a statement that the office hasn't sought additional information since the company passed along the findings of its internal review.
In other stock-option backdating news, Monster Worldwide Inc. founder Andrew McKelvey resigned from the company's board after declining to be interviewed by lawyers conducting an internal investigation into backdating of stock options at the company.
McKelvey founded the company that was the precursor of Monster nearly 40 years ago, but stepped down as the company's chairman and chief executive earlier this month, citing the demands of dealing with the options probe. The company has said that it is very likely to restate its financial results over options issues.
In public statements, SEC enforcement division director Linda Thomsen said that the agency has more than 120 options-related probes under way, focusing on the worst behavior, such as falsifying documents, creating fictitious employees and lying to auditors.
