Toshiba says the SEC is completing an accounting investigation, without penalty

TOKYO (Reuters) – Toshiba Corp of Japan (6502.T) said on Monday that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had conducted an investigation into its past accounting practices without imposing a fine on the company.

"We understand that all SEC investigations regarding our accounting have been completed," a spokesman told Reuters, adding that there was no sanction or censorship.

A phone call to the SEC was connected to an answering machine after hours in the United States, and an email requesting a comment did not receive an immediate response.

The accounting scandal of Toshiba in 2015 uncovered widespread accounting errors in the conglomerate of laptops with nuclear energy dating back to around 2008.

The scandal led the company to recognize huge cost overruns in its now-defunct Westinghouse US nuclear unit, and to force the conglomerate to sell its precious memory chip unit for $ 18 billion.

The company's shares, which were relegated to the secondary board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, were last traded down 0.6% to 335 yen. Shares had risen about 8% over the last month as the company completed the late sale of its chip and unveiled a higher than expected share repurchase plan using the proceeds.