SEC Charges Iconix Brand Group and Former Top Executives With Accounting Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged brand-management company Iconix Brand Group Inc. and three of its former top executives with fraud. Iconix and two of its former executives have agreed to settle. The SEC’s litigation is proceeding against Iconix’s former CEO. The SEC’s complaint against former Iconix CEO Neil Cole and former Chief Operating Officer Seth Horowitz alleges that Cole and Horowitz devised a fraudulent scheme to create fictitious revenue, allowing Iconix to meet or beat Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimates in the second and third quarters of 2014. According to the complaint, Cole and Horowitz realized substantial profits on Iconix stock sales as a result of the alleged fraud.