Ding Dong: Dan Ustian Out At Navistar
Crain’s Chicago Business reported yesterday that Dan Ustian, Chairman, CEO, and President of Navistar was unceremoniously dumped. He has also left the board.
Navistar International Corp. replaced Chairman and CEO Daniel Ustian after a novel but failed engine technology program and rising shareholder pressure put the truck maker’s future as an independent company in doubt.
The article forgot to mention another SEC investigation of Navistar’s accounting and the previous one that caused their delisting a few years back. CEO Dan Ustian has the dubious honor of being one of the few, and probably the only sitting CEO, to have his bonus clawed back per Section 304 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Navistar, the Defense Department vehicle vendor, was caught a few years back manipulating warranty reserves and other numbers to improve its results. The company survived a sixteen-month share delisting, restated several years of results, defended against shareholder lawsuits, regulator investigations and sanctions, and its CEO and former CFO’s bonuses were clawed back by the SEC.
Until yesterday Navistar was still run by Dan Ustian, the guy that personified those previous adverse opinions on internal controls over financial reporting because he didn’t promote the proper “tone at the top”.
Navistar also still has an idiotic lawsuit pending against Deloitte, the auditor that forced their hand the last time. We’ll see how long KPMG can hang in there or whether another Big Four is ready to take over when KPMG bails on this sinking ship. Will former Huron CEO Gary Holdren get the CEO job now that he’s been cleared of all SEC allegations for the restatements at his former firm? He’s been working for Ustian at Navistar on strategy.
This story is developing.
In the meantime, you can catch-up by reading all the stories where I’ve mentioned this company and Ustian.
Huron Consulting, Its Executives and PwC; All’s Well That Ends Well
Big Four Auditors and Jury Trials: Not In The U.S.
PCAOB Disclosure Of Deloitte Private Report: A Regulatory Inflection Point?
Two Wildly Different Stories About Deloitte: Or Are They?
Navistar Sues Deloitte Proving No Statute of Limitations On Idiocy
HP, Hurd, Deloitte and Tone at the Top
Zombies Among Us: The Mainstream Media and Financial Journalism
When Internal Audit Is Impotent or Absent – What Is The Board’s Role?