SEC Charges Energy Storage Company, Former Executive in Fraudulent Scheme to Inflate Financial Results

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a California-based energy storage and power delivery product manufacturer and one of its former sales executives in a fraudulent revenue recognition scheme designed to inflate the company’s reported financial results. According to the SEC’s order, Maxwell Technologies, Inc. prematurely recognized revenue from the sale of ultracapacitors - small energy storage and power delivery products - in order to better meet analyst expectations. Van Andrews, a former Maxwell sales executive and corporate officer, allegedly inflated the company’s revenues by entering into secret side deals with customers and by falsifying records in order to conceal the scheme from Maxwell’s finance and accounting personnel and external auditors.