Following a morning that began with Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) beating the Street’s expectations in profits, revenue and earnings, Citigroup announced that it had found another company that has defrauded the company. While investigations of Oceanografía SA de CV found a $400 million gap in an account that owed money to Citigroup’s Mexico unit, Citi said that this fraud is considerably smaller at under $30 million. The announcement was made by Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C)’s Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach in a media call shortly after the earnings call. No word was given as to what supplier Citi alleges the fraud was committed by.
Hay muchos problemas
He went on to say that the “new” fraud involved “similar issues” to the one it discovered with Oceanografía and disclosed in February. That discovery forced Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) to cut both its fourth quarter and full-year guidance by around $235 million.
Investors weren’t taken aback terrifically by the announcement that it was looking into “concerns of some nature” in three supplier-finance receivables portfolios. After investigation, issues were found with just one of them.
CEO’s rough ride straightening out?
CEO Michael Corbat must have been quite pleased with today’s earnings call despite the fact that the bank later reported this second case of fraud. He’s struggled since he took the helm with a number of issues including the bank’s failure to get Federal Reserve approval to see investors granted higher dividends and the bank’s planned stock buyback. That denial shook the bank and surprised nearly everyone on the board as the Fed told the bank that they had failed to fix a number of problems it had identified the year prior. The Fed also told the bank that it was not adequately projecting revenues and losses of its international businesses in the event of a downturn.
Last month, the bank failed to get Federal Reserve approval to reward investors with higher dividends and stock buybacks, a blow that took the bank’s executives by surprise. The Fed said the bank had failed to fix shortcomings identified a year earlier. The Fed also faulted the New York-based company’s ability to project the revenues and losses of its international businesses in a downturn.
Despite the acknowledgement and the announcement yesterday Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) shares rose on the earnings beat closing at $47.67, up $1.99 or 4.36%.
