迪士尼遭到指控，你了解多少？

迪士尼本來應該專注于營造夢幻王國，而不是捏造數據。

據美國財經媒體MarketWatch報道，迪士尼的一名前高級金融分析師向美國證券交易委員會提交了多份有關該公司會計操作的指控。

桑德拉·庫巴聲稱，迪士尼員工多年來都在以虛假手段夸大營收。指控中所提到的一些方法包括，謊稱公司全額支付了免費贈送的高爾夫游戲或其他免費或打折促銷的服務和產品。迪士尼員工可能是通過軟件漏洞輸入了上述或其他虛假信息。

迪士尼在給《財富》雜志的一則聲明中稱，上述指控屬于無理取鬧。公司的發言人表示，庫巴在2017年被“因故解聘”，并“在兩年多時間里一直公然發表虛假指控”。這位發言人補充稱，迪士尼已經對她的指控進行了 “徹底調查，結果發現毫無根據可言”，而MarketWatch“幾個月前就已經獲悉相關事實”。

以下是我們目前所知的情況。

舉報人稱其曾向管理層上報

營收和利潤對上市公司來說可謂是生死攸關。監管機構要求上市公司必須提交完整而準確的財務報表，以便投資者能夠了解公司的業績。

庫巴指稱，迪士尼在其主題公園中操縱了許多小額交易，歪曲了其實際價值，這些交易的合計金額大幅推高了公司營收。

在2009財年，迪士尼主題公園和度假村業務部門的營收達到了107億美元。庫巴稱，這個數字可能被夸大了60億美元以上。

她稱自己曾經多次向迪士尼管理層上報這些問題，并表示在2017年聯系過美國證券交易委員會，結果一個月后就被解雇了。

投資者并不擔心

迪士尼股價僅下跌了0.12%，這表明投資者并未感到恐慌。接受《財富》雜志采訪的一些專家對這種大額指控表示懷疑。

“這是我首次聽到這種報道?！惫善狈治龉続rgus Research Company的技術、媒體和通信高級分析師約瑟夫·博納說道?！安坏貌徽f，60億美元聽起來有些令人難以置信?！?/p>

喬治城大學麥克多諾商學院的金融學教授詹姆斯·安吉爾同樣心存疑慮，他說：“迪士尼是金融工程大師，如果存在可用的漏洞，他們會利用嗎？我覺得會。但要說他們會在財務方面造假嗎？我會感到震驚?！?/p>

安吉爾認為，即便是確有其事，情形更有可能是中層管理人員試圖以此來粉飾業績，但此舉不大可能逃過內部審計師的眼睛。

庫巴稱其曾與美國證券交易委員會多次會面

庫巴向MarketWatch透露，她與美國證券交易委員會的人員進行了多次電話和當面交談，但目前沒有證據表明該委員會是否真的正在進行調查。

投資顧問公司Bel Air Investment Advisors的總法律顧問兼首席合規官、曾經擔任美國證券交易委員會執法律師的安迪·鄧巴表示：“如果他們收到一家上市公司的財務分析師的投訴，指控該公司存在會計違規行為，我認為他們應該會對此留意”，而不是輕易地置之不理?！罢l知道她對證券交易委員會說了什么？她可能掌握著更多細節?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W）

譯者：艾倫

審校：夏林

Disney is supposed to be in the business of making magic—but not with its numbers.

A former senior financial analyst for the Walt Disney Company has filed multiple claims with the Securities and Exchange Commission about the company’s accounting practices, according to a report by MarketWatch.

Sandra Kuba claims that employees at Disney falsely inflated revenue for years. Some of the alleged methods included pretending that complimentary golf games or other free or discounted promotional services and products were paid in full. Software flaws supposedly allowed these and other misstatements to be entered.

Disney, in a statement to Fortune, denied the claims had any merit. Kuba was “fired for cause” in 2017 and has “persistently made patently false claims for over two years,” a company spokesman said. Her claims have been “thoroughly investigated and found to be utterly baseless,” the spokesman added, and MarketWatch “has been aware of the facts for months.”

Here's what we know so far.

The whistleblower says she told management

Public companies live and die by their revenues and profits. Regulators require full and accurate financial statements so investors can see a company’s performance.

Kuba claims that Disney manipulated many small transactions, allegedly at its theme parks, misrepresenting their actual value and, when totaled, significantly increasing the company’s revenues.

In Disney’s 2009 fiscal year, the parks and resorts business unit showed $10.7 billion in revenue. Kuba says the number could have been inflated by upwards of $6 billion.

She claims to have repeatedly reported the problems to Disney management. Kuba says she contacted the SEC in 2017 and was fired a month after.

Investors aren’t worried

Shares were down only 0.12%, suggesting that investors were not terribly alarmed. Some experts who spoke with Fortune expressed doubts about the larger claims.

“This is the first report that I’ve heard of,” said Joseph Bonner, a senior analyst for technology, media, and communications at equities analysis firm Argus Research Company. “I have to say that $6 billion sounds a little unbelievable.”

James Angel, a professor of finance at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, was similarly unconvinced. “Disney is a master of financial engineering,” he said. “If there’s a loophole available, would they have exploited it? I don’t doubt it. Would they have committed financial fraud? I’d be shocked.”

Angel thought that it was more likely that a mid-level manager trying to push their numbers up, if anything at all—but that internal auditors would probably have uncovered the practice.

Kuba says she’s met with the SEC multiple times

Kuba told MarketWatch she had multiple phone and in-person meetings with SEC personnel. There is no evidence that the agency is even undertaking an investigation.

“If they get a complaint from a financial analyst at a publicly-traded company alleging accounting irregularities, my bet is that they would give that a second look” rather than quickly dismissing it, said Andy Dunbar, general counsel and chief compliance officer at Bel Air Investment Advisors and a former SEC enforcement attorney. “And who knows what she told to the SEC? She could have a lot more detail.”