As we wrote first thing this morning, while the fate of Valeant CEO Pearson was largely known (he is now out) and that Ackman will go down with the Valeant ship was largely as expected, what was a complete shock in the copmany’s press release was that the decision to throw its former CFO, Howard Schiller who formerly ran Goldman’s healthcare group, under the bus and accuse him of cooking the company’s books.
Moments ago Schiller responded, with an even more surprising announcement, saying he did nothing wrong (as expected) and that since he did not engage in any “improper conduct” he refuses to resign from the Valeant Board, and has essentially accused Valeant of running a smear campaign against him. This means upcoming VRX board meetings which include both Ackman and the former Goldmanite, will be particularly unpleasant.
This is what former Goldman employee and ex-Valeant CFO Schiller said:
Valeant has 22,000 incredible employees and a collection of very strong franchises. While the challenges facing the Company are significant, I am confident that Valeant will prevail and emerge again as a very strong company.
As former CFO of the Company, I want to be very clear that the 8-K filed by the Company today, and the Company press release issued today, contain an incorrect statement. Contrary to the statement in the 8-K and press release, at no time did I engage in any improper conduct that relates to any restatement of revenue the Company is considering. In addition, at no time did I ever provide any incorrect information to the Audit and Risk Committee or the Company’s outside auditors regarding this accounting issue.
As a result of the fact that I did not engage in any improper conduct regarding this proposed restatement, I have respectfully declined the request from the Company’s Board to resign from the Board.
The Philidor sales transactions in Q4 2014, and the subsequent accounting treatment, was the result of a careful and reasoned accounting decision made by the Company’s Corporate Controller based on what she considered to be complete and accurate facts, and I was told by the Corporate Controller that the outside auditors reviewed the transactions in question. The accounting decision was not my decision, but I was advised of the decision and the rationale behind the decision by the Corporate Controller, and I agreed with the decision. The now-former Corporate Controller was incredibly experienced, she was trusted and respected by the Audit and Risk Committee, and she consistently received among the highest employee rankings inside the Company and strong support from the Company’s outside auditors.
My hope at this point is to see the Company recover from its challenges and for its employees and shareholders to once again prosper.
Much awkwardness and revelations of very dirty laundry on all sides, is sure to follow.
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