On September 10, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut entered a final consent judgment against the former Vice President of a telecommunications expense management company for his role in fraudulent accounting practices that artificially boosted company revenues between 2013 and 2015.

As alleged in the complaint filed on September 4, 2018, Donald J. Farias was the Senior Vice President of Expense Management Operations for Connecticut-based Tangoe Inc., which improperly recognized approximately $40 million of revenue out of a total of $566 million reported between 2013 and 2015. In some instances, Tangoe allegedly reported revenue prematurely for work that had not been performed and for transactions that did not produce any revenue at all.  In other instances, the complaint alleges that Tangoe improperly recognized revenue that was unlikely to ever be collected.  According to the complaint, Farias, who headed the operations group where many problematic transactions originated, provided false information to Tangoe's finance department. The complaint also alleges that Farias falsified business records, some of which were provided to Tangoe's external auditors to support revenue recognition decisions. At the time of the filing of the complaint, Tangoe, its former CEO, former CFO, and former Vice President of Finance, agreed to settle the SEC's charges and to pay civil penalties, leaving Farias as the only remaining defendant.

Farias consented to the entry of a final judgment that permanently enjoins him from violations of the antifraud provisions of Sections 17(a)(1) and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5(a) and 10b-5(c) thereunder; the record-keeping and internal controls provisions of Section 13(b)(5) of the Exchange Act and Rules 13b2-1 and 13b2-2 thereunder; and aiding and abetting violations of Sections 13(a), 13(b)(2)(A), 13(b)(2)(B) of the Exchange Act and Rules 12b-20, 13a-1, 13a-11, and 13a-13 thereunder. The final judgment also bars Farias from serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years, and orders him to pay a $40,000 civil penalty.

The SEC's case was handled by Xinyue Angela Lin, Deena R. Bernstein, Eric Forni, Trevor Donelan, and Paul G. Block of the Boston Regional Office.