Charlotte-based Bubble Wrap maker under investigation by the SEC

Charlotte-based Sealed Air is being investigated by the Securities Exchange Commission over issues in its accounting and financial reporting.

Buried in its second quarter earnings report Monday, the Bubble Wrap maker said that on June 25 it received from the SEC a subpoena for documents, including requests for the company’s accounting for income taxes, financial reporting and disclosures, and other matters.

Sealed Air said it is cooperating with the SEC, and can predict neither the outcome nor the duration of the investigation.

“Our company takes our controls and compliance efforts seriously, and we are cooperating with the SEC on this matter,” the company said in a statement provided to the Observer.

It is unclear what specifically the SEC is looking into. A spokeswoman declined to offer additional comment.

Also in its quarterly report, Sealed Air said it is involved in “various other legal actions incidental to our business.” The company said it doesn’t believe its legal proceedings will have any material effect on its financial health.

Sealed Air’s disclosure comes about two months after the company named William Stiehl its new chief financial officer. Stiehl had held the position in an interim basis since late October 2017, when Chief Financial Officer Carol Lowe left the company.

The CFO change was the latest of a handful of other significant shakeups at Sealed Air last year.

Last September, for instance, the company said that longtime CEO Jerome Peribere would step down at the end of December. Also in September, the company completed the sale of its cleaning products company Diversey and other businesses, to Bain Capital Private Equity for approximately $3.2 billion. Soon after that, Diversey moved its corporate headquarters from Charlotte to York County, S.C.

Sealed Air, lured by millions of dollars in state and local incentives, became the largest corporate relocation in Charlotte’s history after it started moving its headquarters here from New Jersey in 2014. Sealed Air employs roughly 1,000 people at its newly constructed, $58 million headquarters in southwest Charlotte.

This story was originally published August 8, 2018 at 3:01 PM.