Shares of Greenbrier Companies Inc. GBX fell 0.9% in morning trading Thursday, after the Securities and Exchange Commission said the freight transportation company and its founder and former chief executive, David Furman, agreed to pay $1 million and $100,000 in civil penalties. The agreement settles charges, in which the SEC said the company failed to disclose perks and compensation Furman received for chartering his private plane for travel by company executives. The SEC found that Furman owned a private aircraft that he leased to a management company, and Greenbrier paid that management company $3 million from 2017 to 2021 to charter Furman’s plane, but Greenbrier didn’t disclose that Furman received $1.6 million of that payment. And the SEC said the company didn’t disclose about $320,000 in perks to Furman and other executives, mostly for travel-related expenses for the spouses of those executives to attend customer and industry functions. Furman stepped down as CEO in March 2022, the retired from all executive offices in August 2022, but remains a board member until that term concludes in January 2024. Greenbrier’s stock has dropped 28.9% over the past 12 months, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average DJT has slipped 4.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA has lost 3.5%.
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