Penthouse International, a holding company, is the former owner of Penthouse magazine, which is now published by General Media Communications Inc., itself a unit of Penthouse Media Group Inc.
The settlement resolves the SEC's accusations that the company used an unauthorized electronic signature of Bob Guccione, the magazine's former chief executive officer, to meet certification requirements in its 2003 first-quarter report.
In that report, Penthouse International improperly booked as revenue a $1 million upfront payment in connection with a five-year website management agreement, and also changed a quarterly loss of $167,000 to a net profit of $828,000, according to the SEC complaint.
Samel and Galanis prepared and filed the misleading report, knowing Guccione had not seen or approved it and Penthouse's auditor had not done a proper review, the SEC said.
According to the SEC, the company, Samel and Galanis settled without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. An attorney representing Penthouse and the individuals could not be reached for comment.
Penthouse Media Group Inc. was formerly known as General Media Inc. In 2003, General Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was later reorganized under the majority ownership of financier Marc Bell.