Michael Dell pays $4mn SEC fine following disclosure probe

According to new SEC published report, the computer giant Dell Inc. has agreed to pay a $100-million fine to the commission following five years of litigation relating to a fraud case involving the company and its top executives.

The SEC alleged the company failed to disclose its relationship with Intel Corporation, who was providing huge payments to Dell in exchange for exclusively using Intel microprocessors in Dell products.

The issue was that the payments that were made by Intel were material over several fiscal quarters hence distorted true operational earnings that ultimately mislead investors into believing that the company was more profitable than it really was.

 Additionally, the magnitude of the relationship was not disclosed to shareholders.

Michael Dell, the company founder and current chief executive, agreed to personally pay a $4-million as part of the total settlement.

The firm’s chief financial officer (CFO) also personally paid $3-million.

Michael Dell will remain CEO and chairman of the board at the company.

In a separate case, Dell already admitted that financial reports had accounting irregularities in which the company republished earnings in previous years to reflect updates in accounting policies.

Intel has been long been subject of antitrust allegations and being accused of not being competitive, recently paying AMD, its chief rival, $1.25-billion in an antitrust licensing settlement in late 2009.

The Dell stock (NASDAQ:DELL) closed about 2.50-percent up to $13.40 per share in today’s trading session.