Fine for former Terex CFO

Former Terex Chief Financial Officer Joseph Apuzzo has been fined US$ 100,000 by the US District Court of Connecticut for aiding a fraudulent accounting scheme perpetrated by United Rentals in 2002 and earlier.

Under the scheme, United Rentals inflated its financial results through improper sale and lease-back agreements on equipment. The company settled this issue with a US$ 14 million civil penalty in September 2008, after a case was brought against it by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The complaint against Mr Apuzzo, which was originally filed in 2007, alleges that he aided these transactions by signing agreements with United Rentals that he knew or should have known were designed mislead. He was also said to have issued or approved the issuing of inflated invoices which over-stated United Rentals’ gain on the sale and lease-back transactions.

The case was originally dismissed in 2010, but was reinstated on appeal in 2012. As well as the US$ 100,000 fine, Mr Apuzzo is banned from practicing as an accountant for five years. The case has seen Mr Apuzzo neither admit nor deny guilt.