Correction
A complaint states allegations submitted to a court. Filing the document does not establish that every allegation is true or that a court has found fraud.
Preserve what each source establishes
Write that the named agency alleged the stated conduct in the cited complaint. Then trace the described transaction, entry, estimate, statement effect, and control path. Identify records that could support or contradict the allegation. Report a later order, settlement, plea, verdict, or judgment separately and within its own scope.
Suppose an SEC complaint alleges that an executive directed unsupported entries. The complaint supports a bounded statement about the SEC's allegation and its described mechanism. That document alone cannot prove that the executive acted with the alleged intent. A later settlement may resolve specified claims without an admission. A judgment after trial has a different procedural meaning again.
Check your answer
Name the source type, author, claim, person or entity, period, and procedural status. Do not turn a company-wide restatement into an invented journal entry or attribute conduct to a person whom the source does not name. If a later outcome matters, cite it directly instead of silently changing the complaint's status.
When this mistake may appear
- A regulator files a complaint alleging fraudulent reporting.
- A case summary cites a complaint without naming its procedural status.
Your work may contain this mistake if:
- States every allegation as fact because a government agency filed it.
- Uses an alleged total as proof of a specific entry or person's intent.
- Combines a complaint with a later settlement, order, verdict, or judgment without separating them.