G4S
The hoax said G4S had fired its CFO.  Reuters

Pranksters claiming to be from G4S issued a hoax press release saying the security firm had sacked it chief financial officer on Wednesday for tinkering with its financial statements.

The release said that chief financial officer Himanshu Raja had been fired for tampering with the firms financial statements for 2013 and the first part of 2014.

The fake statement read: "As a result of an internal audit of the company's capital expenditure accounting, it was determined that certain transfers from line cost expenses to capital accounts during this period [2013 and H1 2014] were not made in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

The hoaxers quoted Ashley Almanza G4S CEO as saying: "Our senior management team is shocked by these discoveries. We are committed to operating G4S in accordance with the highest ethical standards."

G4S shares fell back slightly undoing some of the 5.1% gains from early morning trading.

Skeptics on Twitter, however, were quick to expose the elaborate ruse.

The press release also had a link to a fake G4S website which was an exact clone of the official site.

A spokesperson for G4S confirmed to IBTimes UK that the press release was a hoax.

Related