Dive Brief:

• Tobacco and agriproducts maker Universal “withdrew its offer of employment” to Archer-Daniels-Midland alum Anubhav Mittal for the position of CFO, the company reported in a Jan. 28 securities filing. The change came roughly a week after Mittal’s hiring was announced — and one day after the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against ADM’s’s former finance chief Vikram Luthar alleging accounting fraud. 
• Mittal, whose time at his former employer overlapped with that of Luthar’s, is not a named defendant in the SEC’s suit. He was slated to succeed Johan Kroner as finance chief for the Richmond, Va.-based Universal on Feb. 17, the company said in a Jan. 20 press release and SEC filing first announcing his hiring.
• The Thursday filing did not detail the reasons behind the Richmond, Va.-based company’s decision to rescind the offer it made to Mittal, but noted Kroner will remain in the seat until a successor is named. “Based on the company’s recent executive search, the company anticipates electing a successor in the near term,” the company said in the filing.

Dive Insight:

Mittal, whose previous experiences also include various finance and senior roles at the Kellogg Company, joined ADM in 2016, where he served in a variety of roles including as CFO of its global pet solutions business and as VP of global corporate development and M&A, according to the Jan, 20 filing.

He assumed his most recent role as CFO of ADM’s Nutrition business in December 2023, shortly after Luthar—who served as finance chief for the segment for approximately a year — was promoted to ADM’s top finance seat in April 2022.  

Universal did not respond to requests for comment regarding whether the outstanding lawsuit against ADM’s ex-CFO contributed to its decision to rescind its offer.

Filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, the SEC’s suit against Luthar is the latest twist in an ongoing saga related to ADM’s accounting practices, particularly surrounding its nutrition segment.

The suit alleges that Luthar materially inflated the performance of the company’s nutrition segment for fiscal years 2021 and 2022, when it was failing to meet its operating profit goals, CFO Dive previously reported. The SEC’s suit also alleges that “Luthar and other ADM executives knew that Nutrition’s growth was important to investors,” according to the complaint. “To amplify that message, ADM offered monetary incentives to its executives that were based on Nutrition’s performance.”

“Even some executives who worked for ADM’s other business segments received bonuses based, in part, on whether Nutrition met its operating profit growth goal,” the complaint alleges.

Also last week, the SEC announced settled charges against ADM and two other executives related to allegations that it had inflated nutrition business metrics following a years-long probe into the agricultural giant’s accounting processes.

The SEC found the company, as well as Vince Macciocchi —  president of its Nutrition segment from March 2018 through December 2023 — and Ray Young, previously ADM’s CFO from November 2010 to April 2022, violated federal securities law and that Macciocchi and Young caused certain of the violations, CFO Dive previously reported.

Without admitting or denying the charges, ADM agreed to pay a $40 million civil penalty as part of the settlement. Meanwhile, Macchiocchi and Young each agreed to pay civil penalties and disgorgement, with Macciocchi also agreeing to a three-year officer and director bar.