On April 26, 2016, the SEC instituted settled cease-and-desist proceedings against Cabela's Incorporated and Ralph W. Castner, CPA. According to the SEC: "Cabela's is a specialty retailer and direct marketer of hunting, fishing, camping, and related outdoor merchandise headquartered in Sidney, Nebraska. In January 2012, Cabela's entered into a new intercompany agreement ('ICA') with its wholly-owned bank subsidiary, World's Foremost Bank ('WFB'), that increased the amount WFB paid to Cabela's each quarter for WFB's use of the company's intellectual property and trademarks and for the cost of bank promotions relating to the Visa credit card that WFB issued (the 'promotions fee'). Contrary to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ('GAAP') and statements in Cabela's periodic filings for each quarter and fiscal year-end for 2012, Cabela's failed to eliminate the intercompany promotions fee in preparing its consolidated financial statements. Cabela's failure to comply with this GAAP requirement resulted in an understatement of merchandise costs and a corresponding understatement of financial services revenue on the company's consolidated income statement. This in turn increased Cabela's merchandise gross margin percentage, a key company-specific financial metric that signaled the profitability of the company and was referenced by the company in earnings releases and analysts calls. The non-elimination of the promotions fee contributed approximately 47% to 100% to a reported year-over-year increase in the metric for the first through third quarters and year-end 2012. Cabela's description of the reasons for the year-over-year increase in merchandise gross margin percentage in its filings and its earnings releases failed to disclose the role that the promotions fee played in the year-over-year increase. This resulted in materially misleading financial disclosures in the company's 2012 MD&A and earnings releases that were reinforced by Cabela's incorrect statements in its periodic filings that '[a]ll intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.' During the relevant period, Castner was Cabela's chief financial officer ('CFO'). He was aware of the contribution of the promotions fee to Cabela's reported merchandise gross margin percentage, and he made the decision not to disclose it because of his stated view that the associated promotional costs incurred by Cabela's offset the impact of the promotions fee on the quarterly increase. It was materially misleading for Cabela's and Castner not to disclose the impact of the promotions fee on the year-over-year increase in merchandise gross margin percentage each quarter in 2012. In the third quarter of 2012, Cabela's also failed to account properly for various other items in conformity with GAAP. These accounting errors increased net income for that quarter. Castner was not involved directly in the accounting failures in the third quarter of 2012 and the underlying accounting decisions were not reported to Castner."