SEC: Walgreens, 2 Former Execs Misled Investors
(AP) -- Walgreens and two former top executives are settling charges that they misled investors about the profit potential of its pending $16 billion merger with the European retail chain Alliance Boots.
In an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. agreed to pay a $34.5 million penalty.
Former CEO Gregory Wasson and Wade Miquelon, former chief financial officer, will each pay $160,000, without acknowledging wrongdoing.
According to the settlement, Deerfield-based Walgreens in 2012 projected a combined, adjusted profit of $9 billion to $9.5 billion for 2016.
Though internal forecasts later revealed significant risks of not hitting that goal, the executives stuck the original forecasts.
Finally, in August 2014, the company issued a 2016 forecast that was 20 percent lower.
Shares tumbled 14 percent in one day.
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