ADDING A bit of bite to its bark, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued its first enforcement action against a company on the basis of a “pro forma” earnings release, a form of financial reporting designed to downplay negative events.

The SEC’s Northeast Regional Director Wayne M. Carlin announced yesterday that the agency had cited Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts for making misleading statements in the company’s third-quarter 1999 earnings report. The SEC found that the release used pro forma figures to trumpet the company’s purportedly positive results, but failed to disclose that those results were primarily due to an unusual one-time gain.

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