recording of loans. The SEC ordered Fannie to restate its earnings over the prior four years to resolve this cookie jar accounting incident. The company showed concern about how this change will negatively impact it, yet still agreed to increase its capital reserves to $9.4 billion. In 2004, Bristol-Myers Squibb, a New York-based pharmaceutical company was sued on August 4, 2004, by The Securities and Exchange Commission partly for using cookie jar accounting. The company used cookie jar accounting to give the perception of higher earnings, lower liabilities, and hid the company's plan of selling inventory to wholesales before providing goods which lead to higher revenue reporting. The company's misconduct resulted in a US$100 million-dollar civil penalty, US$50 million-dollar payment towards a fund for shareholders and creating an independent adviser position who is responsible for the oversight of accounting practices and accurate financial reporting used within the company. In July 2009, a prior chief accounting officer at Beazer Homes, USA, Inc., was charged by The Securities and Exchange Commission, for using cookie jar accounting among other indictments. The chief accounting officer was accused of using the cookie jar accounting method to hide over US$60 million by increased land inventory accounts and net income in declining years and increased expense accounts in good years. During 2006 and the beginning of 2007, he misleading accounting practices lead to an overstatement of income and understatement of losses totaling US$47 million. The employee was sentenced to ten years in prison and three years supervised release. In July 2010, Dell was accused, of fraudulently reporting its financial earnings to give the impression that it was exceeding analyst earnings projections. Dell had used undisclosed payments from Intel to smooth out volatility from poor earnings. Dell paid a $100 million penalty for it misconduct. None of the managers involved faced tough penalties that would convince investors of the company not manipulating figures in the future. References Accounting systems Accounting scandals Corporate crime Financial crimes