Financial Conduct Authority begins probe into WANdisco
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched an investigation into potentially fraudulent activities at big data firm WANdisco.
It relates to announcements released by the Sheffield-headquartered company during the period 1 January 2022 to 9 March 2023, which may have materially mis-stated its financial position.
A WANdisco spokesman this morning stated: “The Board is co-operating with the FCA in this endeavour, in addition to continuing to support the completion of the independent investigation already being undertaken by FRP Advisory.”
As previously reported, the interim report by investigators FRP Advisory concerns false purchase orders and sales bookings.
WANdisco warned the London Stock Exchange about potentially fraudulent purchase and sales orders on 9 March, when it said its 2022 revenue forecast might be slashed from $24m to as low as $9m.
FRP’s interim report has since confirmed that purchase orders worth $15m and sales bookings of $115m in 2022 are false, and that WANdisco’s full-year revenues for 2022 should have been $9.7m. The same report also confirms unaudited bookings should have been $11.4m, rather than $127m.
Trading in WANdisco shares has been suspended since the 9 March announcement, but the firm has operated and traded as usual.
Early this month, David Richards, co-founder and chief executive and chief financial officer Erik Miller resigned from the WANdisco board and leadership team. They said their resignations were unrelated to findings of the interim report.
