Dell

In 2010, Dell paid a fine of $100 million for an accounting fraud that misled its investors. Dell had to pay a fine of $100 million to the U.S. Securities and $4 million to the Exchange Commission charges, which it misled through fake accounts to meet the expectations of the Wall Street. Dell had announced that it would procure microprocessors from AMD, which made Intel pay fees--which was about 76 percent of Dell's operating profit--to Dell to continue supplying the chips during 2002 and 2006, making Dell meet its target revenues. After Dell decided to procure microprocessors from AMD, Intel cut down on the payments it made to Dell, which led to a 75 percent fall in Dell's profitability and it did not disclose the reason to its investors. They stated that its pricing strategy and decreasing demand were the reasons for the fall in the profits. Dell misstated the trend and the amount of operating income, which resulted in banning of Dell's former CFO James Scneider from practicing as an accountant for five years; while former regional VP of Finance Nicholas Dunning and former Assistant controller Leslie Jackson were banned for three years. Dells brand value saw a fall from $16 billion in January 2010, to $9 billion in June 2010.