India, Feb. 20 -- Diageo plc (DGE.L,DEO) agreed to pay $5 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that the British alcoholic beverages company failed to make required disclosures related to the shipments of unneeded products by its North American subsidiary to distributors.
The SEC said in an order that employees at Diageo North America pressured distributors to buy products in excess of demand in order to meet internal sales targets in the face of declining market conditions.
The resulting increase in shipments enabled Diageo to meet performance targets and to report higher growth in key performance indicators that were closely followed by investors and analysts, the SEC said in the order.
Published by HT Digit...