After a reporting incident sent Mattel (MAT 0.66%) shares lower in October 2019, the company is finalizing its commitment to find a new CFO to replace Joe Euteneuer, who presided over the company's finances at the time the whistleblower letter came out.
An outsider to take over
The toy maker announced on Wednesday that it has hired Anthony P. DiSilvestro, who will come on board as an executive advisor on June 29. He will assume the chief finance role after the release of the company's second quarter earnings, which is expected to take place on July 30.
Image source: Mattel.
DiSilvestro comes from the same role at The Campbell Soup Company (CPB +2.95%) where he spent four decades in various roles within the company.
CEO Ynon Kreiz said "I look forward to working with Anthony to transform Mattel into an IP-driven, high-performing toy company and create long-term shareholder value."
Closing out the scandal
A whisteblower who worked at Mattel disclosed in August 2019 that the company had worked together with auditors to cover up an accounting error. $109 million of income tax expense was understated in the third quarter of 2017, and the team decided to overstate the same amount in the fourth quarter instead of disclose the error and admit to accounting inefficiencies in the system.
The letter claimed that that the finance team worked together with the auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and did not tell the CEO about the problem.
Mattel shares are down 25% year to date as of Wednesday morning.
