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Whistleblower alleges Disney parks inflated revenue for years
Walt Disney Co isn’t quite the Happiest Place on Earth right now after its share price had a temporary dip.
Investors were spooked after a former accountant made claims its parks division has been cooking the books for years by massively overstating revenue.
Sandra Kuba, a former senior financial analyst, told MarketWatch of several alleged ruses to inflate revenue amounting to several billion dollars.
It recorded revenue amounts for complimentary golf rounds or free guest promotions, and often recorded revenue twice for a gift card – when it was purchased by a guest and when it was redeemed at a resort at supposedly no cost.
This happened even when gift cards were handed out for free in the event of a guest complaint, Kuba alleged.
Kuba said limitations in the company’s accounting software made these difficult to trace.
She said Disney could have overstated as much as $6 billion in financial year 2008-2009.
Kuba first reported this in 2013 but got no response.
She then took it higher up the management chain in 2016, but again no action was taken.
Kuba then presented her concerns to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2017, and says she was fired about a month later.
She then filed a whistleblower-retaliation complaint with OSHA.
Disney says the claims are baseless.
They said she was fired because ‘she displayed a pattern of workplace complaints against co-workers without a reasonable basis for doing so, in a manner that was inappropriate, disruptive and in bad faith.’
Since she left Disney Kuba made two more whistleblower filings, one of which asserts the company reclassified revenue in order to avoid higher rates of tax.
Kuba spent 18 years at Disney before being fired.
She says she has spoken to SEC officials on numerous occasions and discussed the matter as recently as last week.
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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