Former Safety-Kleen CFO Sentenced To 70 Months in Prison for Securities Fraud

By Aaron Poehler

Published on November 12, 2007

The sentence was handed down last week in Manhattan federal court after Humphries, 48, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, making false statements in SEC filings, falsifying books and records, making false statements to company auditors, and bank fraud.

According to the indictment, when Safety-Kleen was sold to Rollins Environmental Services in 1998, projected annual earnings estimates asserted Safety-Kleen would reach approximately $500 million per year. When the company failed to reach those expectations, Humphries made and directed other Safety-Kleen employees to make a series of false accounting entries in order to artificially inflate the company's earnings as stated in the company's quarterly reports, annual reports and press releases. More than $250 million in illegal adjustments were made to the company's financial records by Humphries and others in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Two of Humphries' co-conspirators were named in the indictment, including William Ridings, a Safety-Kleen vice president and the company's controller, and Thomas Ritter, vice president of accounting at the company. Ridings pleaded guilty to securities fraud in 2002 and reportedly implicated Humphreys at that time.

Humphreys potentially faced up to 45 years in prison and up to $2.25 million in fines.

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