Former top Wandisco execs pressured to return £650,000 in bonuses
Former executives of Wandisco are facing demands to return nearly £650,000 in bonuses received before the software company was embroiled in an accounting scandal earlier this year.
Wandisco’s board has written to both David Richards, the firm’s co-founder and former boss, and Erik Miller, ex-finance chief, asking them to their last bonus payments, amounting to a total of $832,000 (£647,000).
Richards and Miller both stepped down in April after an internal investigation found that $115m (£89m) in sales was completely made up. The probe blamed the misstatement on a senior sales employee.
The firm’s board has requested the repayment because “it is clear that the bonuses paid are significantly at odds with the realities the company has faced,” a spokesperson for Wandisco said.
“In line with shareholder sentiment, and as simply the right thing to do, the board of Wandisco confirms that it has written to former executives of the company requesting that bonuses paid for FY 2022 are returned,” the spokesperson said.
According to ‘City sources’ cited by Sky News, who first reported the story, the bonuses angered shareholders as the company’s value plummeted after allegations of accounting fraud were first raised.
Before its shares were suspended in March, when the fraud probe was launched, Wandisco was valued at around £880m. Its market value has now flopped to £103m.
Its share price initially dived 96 per cent on its return to the AIM index, but it has since recovered.
CityAM wasn’t immediately able to reach Richards and Miller for comment.