Rental-car company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. has criticized former CEO – and current CEO of casino operator Caesars Entertainment – Mark Frissora’s “management style and temperament,” as the company wraps up a financial restatement.
Hertz has finally managed to identify the $207 million it had “lost” through additional pretax misstatements from 2011 through 2013, which according to a statement cuts the company’s pretax income to 23% and net income by as much as 26%.
In a July 16 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Hertz said that an investigation found “an inconsistent and sometimes inappropriate tone at the top” among former senior management that led to the company’s sometimes failing to comply with accounting principles.
“Our incorrect accounting was caused by the foregoing control deficiencies, along with a complex mix of structural and environmental factors. One of those factors was the tone set and pressures imposed by our former Chief Executive Officer, which were inappropriate in certain instances, and may have been a factor influencing one or more employees to record an accounting entry now determined to be improper,” the filing said.
Frissora, who joined Caesars following Gary Loveman’s move to the chairman’s role, resigned from Hertz for personal reasons but according to reports, the latter’s investors had pushed for his removal, citing accounting and operational missteps.
Caesars Executive Vice President of Communications and Government Relations Jan Jones Blackhurst defended Frissora in a statement on Saturday saying that the company is “fortunate to have Mark [Frissora] at its helm.”
“Hertz‘s disclosure very specifically did not suggest any wrongdoing by Mark. In fact, it described a CEO focused on driving performance and results and merely posits that this focus may have led to some of the accounting errors,” added Blackhurst.
The company, which relocated its headquarters to Naples in 2013 and is among the largest publicly traded firms in Florida, began the restatement in November, a couple of months after Frissora resigned as chairman and CEO.
