SEC Charges Brixmor Property Group Inc. and Former Senior Executives with Accounting Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Brixmor Property Group Inc., a publicly-traded real estate investment trust, and four former senior executives with fraud in connection with a scheme to manipulate a key non-GAAP metric relied on by analysts and investors to evaluate the company's financial performance. Brixmor has agreed to settle the Commission's charges and pay a $7 million penalty. The SEC's complaint against the individuals, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that from the third quarter of 2013 to the third quarter of 2015, Brixmor CEO Michael Carroll, CFO Michael Pappagallo, CAO Steven Splain and Senior VP of Accounting Michael Mortimer improperly adjusted Brixmor's same property net operating income (SP NOI) in order to report quarterly numbers that hit the Company’s publicly-issued growth targets.