An October 31, 2012, news release from Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) included the following:
HP recorded a non-cash charge for the impairment of goodwill and intangible assets within its Software segment of approximately $8.8 billion in the fourth quarter of its 2012 fiscal year. The majority of this impairment charge is linked to serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations at Autonomy Corporation that occurred prior to HP’s acquisition of Autonomy and the associated impact of those improprieties, failures and misrepresentations on the expected future financial performance of the Autonomy business over the long-term.
Required
Comment on the provisions of SOX that pertain to intentional misrepresentation and describe the maximum penalty that CFO could face.