LendingClubbed: Stock Plummets On News Of A DOJ Grand Jury Subpoena As Accusations Fly

While it will hardly come as a shock following the turbulent events disclosed one week ago, which culminated with the “resignation” of CEO Renaud Laplanche, amid a series of complicated backdoor ‘related party’ transactions which could even implicate none other than company director and former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, moments ago LendingClub (LC) unveiled in its 10-Q filing that “on May 9, 2016, following the announcement of the board review described elsewhere in this filing, the Company received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The Company also contacted the SEC. The Company intends to cooperate with the DOJ and the SEC. The DOJ and the SEC may have additional requests, and no assurance can be given as to the timing or outcome of these matters.”

Worse, the fingerpointing has begun:

During the second quarter of 2016, we identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, as described further in “Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting” below. As a result of the circumstances giving rise to the material weakness described below, and in connection with the board review of specific near-prime loan sales to an investor and other compliance matters described elsewhere herein, the Company’s acting CEO and CFO have concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were not effective at a level that provides reasonable assurance that the objectives of disclosure controls and procedures were met as of March 31, 2016.

The identified material weakness is the result of the aggregation of control deficiencies related to the Company’s “tone at the top,” which manifested in three primary areas described further below.

The problems just happen to go further back than initial revealed:

In addition, the Company has concluded that the material weakness identified as of March 31, 2016 also existed at the end of 2015 and therefore that its disclosure controls and procedures were ineffective and not operating at the reasonable assurance level as of December 31, 2015.