WANdisco says erroneous sales numbers were work of single employee
WANdisco Fraud Investigation Finds $130 Million in Mistake Sales Were the Work of Cloud Service Company ‘Senior Employee’
- An investigation found that the technology group had overestimated last year’s sales and bookings
- Bookings totaled a measly $11.4 million instead of the previously announced $127 million
- WANdisco designs software that enables companies to transfer data sets to the cloud
The controversial British technology company WANdisco has revealed that one person was behind the inconsistencies in its revenue and sales results.
Seven weeks ago, the software vendor suspended trading of its stock on the junior AIM market after discovering “significant, sophisticated and potentially fraudulent anomalies” in the previous year’s financial statements.
Professional services firm FRP Advisory was subsequently appointed to lead an investigation into the matter. The Financial Conduct Authority is also conducting an investigation into the alleged fraud.
Issue: Seven weeks ago, WANdisco suspended trading of its stock after discovering “significant, sophisticated, and potentially fraudulent irregularities” in its financial statements
Earlier this month, it reported that nearly $15 million in sales and more than $115 million in sales had been erroneously added to the company’s 2022 financial results.
WANdisco actually made $9 million in revenue last year instead of the $24 million recorded in January 2023, while bookings totaled a measly $11.4 million instead of the previously quoted $127 million.
FRP reiterated those findings on Friday, as well as its assessment that all purchase orders associated with an – yet unnamed – senior sales associate were “illegitimate,” while all other orders were in order.
It also said there was “no credible evidence” of customers using the company’s technology to inadvertently make payments to an unapproved third party.
WANdisco’s founder and CEO, David Richards, and finance chief, Erik Miller, stepped down during the release of those preliminary findings, though the company claimed their departures were unrelated to the findings.
Kenneth Lever, the group’s recently appointed executive chairman, said: ‘We are pleased to receive these findings, which confirm the limits of the impact of the irregularities identified in line with our April 3 announcement.
“The board remains fully focused on workflows to lift the suspension of our shares as quickly as possible and position WANdisco for long-term growth and success.”
WANdisco will now pass on the findings of the report to its auditors so that the financial results for 2022 can be continued and finalized.
Founded in 2005 and with two headquarters in Sheffield and California, WANdisco designs software that enables companies to transfer large datasets to the cloud for use in fields such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Prominent clients included technology giants Google and Amazon, web hosting platform GoDaddy, car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz Group and the University of Sheffield.
Prior to March 2023, it was one of the fastest growing companies in the UK and was considering listing its shares on Wall Street in hopes of gaining a higher valuation.