- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Adrianne Appel2022-11-29T20:11:00
The former chief executive officer of Iconix Brand Group faces possible jail time after his conviction Monday of fraudulently inflating the brand management company’s revenue and misleading investors and auditors.
Neil Cole, who left Iconix in 2015, was convicted by a federal jury of one count of securities fraud, six counts of making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and one count of improperly influencing the conduct of audits. Each count carries a maximum prison term of 20 years, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a press release.
Cole’s guilty verdict was rendered following a retrial. The DOJ first announced criminal charges against him in December 2019, at the same time the SEC charged Iconix; Cole; and two other executives, Chief Operating Officer Seth Horowitz and Chief Financial Officer Warren Clamen, with accounting fraud.
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Three executives at the U.S. subsidiary of Australian defense contractor Austal Limited were charged with accounting fraud for allegedly participating in a three-year scheme to lower cost estimates and prematurely book revenue.
Iconix Brand Group and three of its former top executives were charged by the SEC for engaging in accounting fraud. Iconix and two of the executives agreed to settle, with litigation still pending against the company’s former CEO.
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