The Securities and Exchange Commission charged GTT Communications, Inc. with failing to disclose material information about unsupported adjustments the company made in several Commission filings, which increased GTT's reported operating income by at least 15% in three quarters from 2019 through 2020. The SEC's order credits GTT with promptly self-reporting, undertaking affirmative remedial measures, and providing substantial cooperation to the SEC, and does not order a civil penalty against GTT. According to the SEC's order, after experiencing rapid growth through a series of acquisitions beginning in 2017, GTT struggled to reconcile data that was being generated by two of the company's key operational systems. Over time, the two systems began to show a persistent discrepancy between actual expenses, as reflected in invoices received from vendors, and the company's expected expenses.

GTT was unable to reconcile these two systems and knew that it lacked sufficient information necessary to accurately record and report certain expenses. The SEC's order finds that GTT nonetheless made unsupported adjustments of more than $35 million that lowered its reported cost-of-revenue, thereby increasing its reported operating income, but failed to disclose material facts about these adjustments. In December 2020, GTT disclosed that certain previously issued consolidated financial statements should no longer be relied upon and that it had commenced an internal investigation.

After discovering the issues concerning costs, GTT attempted to remediate its accounting and financial reporting issues and promptly self-reported to the SEC the matters that were subject to its ongoing internal investigation. It also cooperated extensively with the SEC staff during its investigation.