Macy’s reported stronger-than-expected sales for the third quarter and said it’s delaying the release of its full quarterly results after it discovered an employee intentionally hid up to $154 million of expenses over several years.
The department store chain, which also operates Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury cosmetics chain in addition to its namesakes stores, was expected to report quarterly results on Tuesday.
The retailer said Monday that it identified an issue related to delivery expenses in one of its accrual accounts earlier this month. An independent investigation and forensic analysis found that a single employee with responsibility for small package delivery expense accounting intentionally made erroneous accounting accrual entries to hide roughly $132 million to $154 million of expenses from the fourth quarter of 2021 through the fiscal quarter ended November 2.
The company recognized about $4.36 billion of delivery expenses during the same time period.
Macy’s said that there’s no indication that the erroneous accounting accrual entries had any impact on its cash management activities or vendor payments.
The company added that the person behind the conduct is no longer an employee and that the investigation didn’t identify involvement by any other worker.