Denver's Molson Coors Brewing sued over $400 million correction to 2016 income

A class-action lawsuit filed in federal court Friday alleges Denver-based brewing giant Molson Coors perpetrated a “fraudulent scheme” to deceive investors over the last two years.

The suit comes days after the company — maker of ubiquitous beer brands including Coors, Molson and Miller, and one of the world’s largest brewers — revealed that it overstated its 2016 net income by almost $400 million in a year-end financial statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The overstated income was highlighted in a document filed with the SEC on Tuesday. In that filing, Molson Coors attributed the false income total to “errors in accounting” related to deferred tax liabilities for its partnership with MillerCoors. Other inaccurate information included in year-end financial statements for 2017 also stemmed from accounting errors, the company said. Molson Coors has restated its year-end reports for 2016 and 2017.

But the class action suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver alleges Molson Coors, its CEO Mark Hunter and chief financial officer Tracey Joubert — both named as co-defendants — either “knew or deliberately disregarded” that statements in its financial filings were false and misleading and “failed to disclose material facts necessary” to correct those statements prior to Tuesday’s announcement.

Read more: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/02/15/denver-molson-coors-lawsuit-income-correction/