Former employee accused AI server maker of accounting violations
Super Micro Computer’s headquarters in San Jose, Calif.
Super Micro Computer, the server maker that saw its business take off with the artificial-intelligence boom, is being probed by the Justice Department following a critical report by an activist short-selling firm, according to people familiar with the matter.
The shares dropped 13% in morning trading.
The probe is at an early stage, the people said. A prosecutor at the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco recently has contacted people potentially holding relevant information.
The prosecutor asked for information that appeared to be connected to a former employee who accused the company of accounting violations. The former employee filed a whistleblower lawsuit in April against Super Micro and its chief executive.
A Super Micro spokesman declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.
Short seller Hindenburg Research published its report about Super Micro on Aug. 27, and said it had placed bets against the company’s stock. The report focused in part on allegations made by the former employee, Bob Luong, as well as transactions between Super Micro and companies run by family members of its chief executive, Charles Liang.
Shares of Super Micro surged with the bull market in AI-themed stocks. The company, commonly known as Supermicro, makes specialized servers that use the chips Nvidia designs for generative AI.
The stock rose 14-fold from the start of 2023 through March and has since tumbled 59%. At its peak, the company was worth $66 billion.
Super Micro in 2020 paid $17.5 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission claims of widespread accounting violations, without admitting or denying the accusations. The SEC also reached a settlement with a former Super Micro chief financial officer, and it required Liang to reimburse the company $2.1 million in stock-sale profits even though it didn’t accuse Liang of misconduct.
In his lawsuit, Luong said Super Micro fired several employees associated with the past accounting violations, only to hire them back later. Hindenburg highlighted the same point in its report. Hindenburg also said it had found instances of Super Micro products being shipped to companies in Russia after the war in Ukraine began, despite U.S. sanctions.
On Aug. 28, the day after the Hindenburg report, Super Micro said it would be late filing its fiscal 2024 annual report with the SEC. The company soon afterward said its board of directors had formed a committee “to review certain of the company’s internal controls and other matters.” The company still hasn’t filed its annual report.
In a Sept. 3 letter to customers, Liang said the short-seller report “contains false or inaccurate statements about our company,” and that “we will address these statements in due course.”
Liang said the company didn’t anticipate making any significant changes in its previously released financial results for fiscal 2024.
Luong in his lawsuit alleged Super Micro in some instances recognized revenue improperly from fiscal 2020 to 2022. He said in some cases it booked revenue on sales that hadn’t been completed. He said another method for booking revenue prematurely “was to ship and bill certain customers for incomplete equipment that was not ready for sale.”
Luong said Super Micro fired him in April 2023, after placing him on unpaid leave months earlier. His last job there was as a general manager responsible for providing leadership and guidance for Super Micro’s global service team.
Super Micro has asked the court to put Luong’s lawsuit on hold and send his claims to arbitration. A hearing on the company’s request is scheduled for Thursday.
Tanya Gomerman, an attorney for Luong, said in a statement, “Mr. Luong came forward to report what he believed were significant accounting irregularities, and instead of taking steps to investigate or fix these problems they terminated him and swept the matter under the rug.”
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