According to the SEC: "This action involves violations of the antifraud, recordkeeping, internal controls, and reporting provisions of the federal securities laws arising from a multi-year accounting fraud scheme orchestrated and implemented by the Defendants."

According to a litigation release issued November 20, 2017: "A Canadian-based oil and gas company has agreed to pay $8.5 million in civil penalties to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2017 arising from an extensive, multi-year accounting fraud."

According to the SEC: "The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") having filed a Complaint and Defendant Penn West Petroleum Ltd., d/b/a Obsidian Energy Ltd. ("Defendant") having entered a general appearance; consented to the Court's jurisdiction over Defendant and the subject matter of this action; consented to entry of this Final Judgment Imposing Permanent Injunction and Civil Money Penalty ("Final Judgment"); waived findings of fact and conclusions of law; and waived any right to appeal from this Final Judgment"

On June 28, 2017, the SEC charged a Canadian-based oil and gas company and three of its former top finance executives for their roles in an extensive, multi-year accounting fraud, stating in a litigation release: "According to the SEC's complaint...they [former finance executives] manipulated the company's operating expenses in order to lower a key publicly reported metric concerning the cost of oil extraction and processing needed to sell a barrel of oil. Penn West allegedly created an internal budget target representing the amount it would improperly move in its publicly-reported financial statements and gave the illusion that it was spending less money to get oil of out the ground."