Moderna’s CFO is leaving.
Clement Mahoueau/AFP/Getty Images
Moderna
said early Wednesday that its newly-appointed chief financial officer had left the company after only a day on the job, after his former employer disclosed an internal investigation into matters including financial reporting.
The CFO, Jorge Gomez, was formerly the CFO at the dental equipment manufacturer Dentsply Sirona (ticker: XRAY), a position he had held since August 2019. According to an April statement, he was set to start at Modern (MRNA) as of this past Monday.
On Tuesday, Dentsply disclosed in a securities filing that since March, its board’s audit committee has been conducting an internal investigation into the company’s use of sales incentives in the second half of 2021.
Dentsply said that its audit committee is looking into whether those incentives were properly accounted for, and investigating “allegations that certain former and current members of senior management directed the Company’s use of these incentives …to achieve executive compensation targets in 2021.”
Dentsply’s audit committee has hired an outside attorney to assist its investigation. It said that current and former employees of the company had brought the allegations to the audit committee’s attention.
Moderna said Wednesday that Gomez had departed the company as of Tuesday. Despite only holding his position for a single day, he will receive a year’s salary, totaling $700,000. Moderna said that its recently-retired CFO, David Meline, will return to the position as of Wednesday.
Moderna stock was down 2.7% in premarket trading.
Dentsply shares, meanwhile, fell 7.3% on Tuesday, and were down another 0.3% in premarket trading on Wednesday.
Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]
