The Securities and Exchange Commission charged VEREIT Inc., formerly known as American Realty Capital Properties Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust, with intentionally overstating a key performance metric. VEREIT has agreed to settle the charges and pay an $8 million penalty that will be distributed to harmed investors.
The SEC's order finds that former senior company executives falsely reported and manipulated the calculation of the company's adjusted funds from operations, or AFFO, a key non-GAAP performance measure, from at least May 2014 until the company's initial disclosure of the misconduct on October 29, 2014. The order finds that the company used AFFO when providing earnings guidance and that management, analysts and investors relied on AFFO to assess the company's financial performance.
VEREIT’s former senior executives, Brian Block and Lisa McAlister, previously settled SEC cha