Review found officers manipulated cashflow to hit targets and affect bonus payments
Chemical giant Chemours has sacked its chief executive and chief financial officer after an internal review revealed suspicious accounting and compensation practices.
The DuPont spin-off had previously postponed reporting its 2023 financial results and placed chief executive Mark Newman, chief financial officer Jonathan Lock, and principal accounting officer Camela Wisel on administrative leave for the duration of an internal review.
On 6 March, Chemours revealed that the review had found that Newman, Lock and Wisel violated the company’s code of ethics by, among other things, delaying payments to suppliers and accelerating collection of other payments. Their aim was to meet publicly disclosed cashflow targets ‘which also would be part of a key metric for determining incentive compensation applicable to executive officers’. The review also found that anonymous reports to the company’s ethics hotline had not been appropriately evaluated and escalated for action.
On 22 March, Chemours permanently appointed Denise Digham, who had been acting as interim chief executive, to replace Newman. The company is also recruiting a replacement for Lock.
No comments yet