A Disney accountant debunks recent claims that the House of Mouse is cooking the books to overstate profits.
In a report from Deadline, an accountant by the name of Sandra Kuba, a Disney employee of 18 years before being fired in 2017, has told the MarketWatch and the Securities and Exchange Commission that the media company that the likes of Walt Disney, Michael Eisner, and Bob Iger have built has over-reported profits by as much as $6 billion in a year for several years. However, Disney sources have quickly debunked this report with the following statement:
“This former employee, who was fired for cause, has persistently made patently false claims for over two years. The claims she made to the company were thoroughly investigated and found to be utterly baseless. It is unfortunate that MarketWatch, which has been aware of the facts for months, knowingly and deliberately chose to give Ms. Kuba’s unfounded claims a platform.”
Just because a report is filed to the SEC it doesn’t mean that there will be an investigation to come out of it. Kuba has made these claims for over two years now, and there has been little movement to suggest that action will be taken, something that suggests that her concerns are not being taken seriously. Disney claimed that Kuba was fired due to “[displaying] a pattern of workplace complaints against co-workers without a reasonable basis for doing so, in a manner that was inappropriate, disruptive and in bad faith.” Kuba previously withdrew a retaliation claim in 2018.
Regardless, Disney is having an absolutely fantastic 2019 at the box office, towering over their competitors in spite of growing pains with inheriting Fox’s slate of movies. So far, five films distributed by Disney this year have made $1 billion — Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin, Toy Story 4, and The Lion King (with Avengers: Endgame topping $2 billion in record time) – with Frozen II and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker serving as further contenders to make even more cash on that kind of level. It’s unlikely that Disney will have a year as great as this one anytime soon, but in any case, it will provide their new streaming service Disney+ with a lot of great content to make money off of.
Stay tuned for the latest news on any and all upcoming Disney projects.
Source: Deadline