SEC Charges Walgreens and Two Former Executives With Misleading Investors About Forecasted Earnings Goal

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., former CEO Gregory Wasson, and former CFO Wade Miquelon with misleading investors about increased risk that the company would miss a key financial goal announced when Walgreen Co. entered into a merger with Alliance Boots GmbH in 2012. Walgreens agreed to pay a $34.5 million penalty to settle the SEC’s enforcement action. According to the SEC’s order, Walgreens announced a two-step merger with Alliance Boots in June 2012, and at the same time projected that the combined entity would generate $9 billion to $9.5 billion in combined adjusted operating income in the 2016 fiscal year. After completing the first step of the merger, Walgreens’ internal forecasts indicated that the risk of missing its 2016 projection had increasing significantly.