SEC Charges Comscore Inc. and Former CEO with Accounting and Disclosure Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged global information and media analytics firm, Comscore, Inc., and its former CEO with engaging in a fraudulent scheme to overstate revenue by approximately $50 million and making false and misleading statements about key performance metrics. The SEC's orders find, among other things, that from February 2014 through February 2016, Comscore, at the direction of its former CEO Serge Matta, entered into non-monetary transactions for the purpose of improperly increasing its reported revenue. Through these transactions, Comscore and a counterparty would negotiate and agree to exchange sets of data without any cash consideration. Comscore recognized revenue on these transactions based on the fair value of the data it delivered, which had been improperly increased in order to inflate revenue.