OPINION & ORDER This recently filed case entails claims of accounting fraud and disclosure violations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) against Hill, Inc. (“Hill”) and two of Hill’s accounting officials. Following settlements, only one defendant remains: Nicholas Tornello. Tornello now moves for transfer of this case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1404(a). For the reasons that follow, the Court grants that motion, and transfers this case to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. I. Background A. The SEC’s Complaint On January 16, 2020, the SEC’s Philadelphia regional office filed a Complaint in this District against Hill, Ronald Emma, and Tornello. Dkt. 1 (“Cmplt.”). The Complaint described Hill as a publicly traded project and construction management consulting business incorporated in Delaware, with a principal place of business in Philadelphia. Id. 17. It described Emma, age 68, as a resident of Moorestown, N.J., who had served as Hill’s chief accounting officer between 1980 and his retirement in February 2017. Id. 18. It described Tornello, age 32, as a resident of Runnemede, N.J., who had served at Hill, between 2009 and 2017, in a series of roles with growing responsibilities. Id. 19. These roles included staff accountant, senior accountant, senior financial analyst, director of internal reporting (starting in 2015), and assistant corporate controller (from 2016 until he left the company in March 2017). Id. Broadly speaking, the Complaint alleged that Hill had made repeated reporting errors and failed to maintain adequate books and records, and that this misconduct had led the company to issue materially false and misleading financial statements between May 2014 and March 2017. Id. 1. These resulted, in May 2018, in Hill’s restating its financial statements for the years 2014, 2015, 2016, and the first quarter of 2017. Id. 2. Relevant here, the Complaint alleged that the restatement corrected material errors in Hill’s books and records that Emma and Tornello had identified in May 2014 but had failed to correct. Id. 3. Specifically, it alleged that Tornello had identified approximately $5 million in foreign currency exchange losses on intercompany obligations that were incorrectly recorded on Hill’s balance sheet and which should have been reflected on (and which would have negatively impacted) Hill’s income statement. Id. 4. Instead, between May 2014 and October 2014, Tornello wrote emails to Emma and others describing a plan — in breach of generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) — to recognize $5 million in such losses over time. Id.
5-6. It alleged that Emma and Tornello failed to correct these errors, rendering Hill’s income statement and its books and records false, and that they failed to disclose the improper accounting treatment, thereby violating internal controls and policies. Id.
