Hain Celestial, a maker and seller of organic lifestyle and food products, revealed in a filing last Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating its accounting practices.
The filing of the Lake-Success-based company said that the SEC has put forth a “formal order of investigation” and “issued a subpoena to [Hain Celestial] seeking relevant documents.”
The filing said the company “is in the process of responding to the SEC’s requests for information and intends to cooperate fully with the SEC.”
The company voluntarily contacted the SEC in August to advise it of the company’s delay in the filing of its periodic financial reports and the performance of an independent review conducted by an audit committee, the filing said.
On Nov. 16, the company informed the SEC of the completion of an audit conducted by that committee, which found no evidence of intentional wrongdoing in connection with the company’s financial statements, the filing said.
Hain Celestial had been recognizing revenue when products were shipped to distributors rather than when the products were sold through its distributors to customers, Newsday reported.
“In August we voluntarily, or self-reported, to the SEC delay in filing of our financial results and have been responding to their requests for information,” Mary Celeste Anthes, Hain Celestial’s senior vice president of corporate relations, told Newsday on Friday.
Anthes did not respond to a request for comment.
