The second extremely troubling feature of the Livent fraud, according to the SEC, was the matter-of-fact manner in which the company’s management team organized and carried out the fraud. Reportedly, Drabinsky, Gottlieb, and Robert Topol, Livent’s chief operating officer (COO), regularly met with Eckstein, Messina, and other members of the company’s accounting staff to discuss the details of the fraud. At these meetings, the three top executives reviewed preliminary financial reports prepared by the accounting staff and instructed the accountants on the “adjustments” needed to improve or embellish reports. As suggested earlier, Livent’s top executives relied on coercion and intimidation to browbeat their accountants, including Messina, into accepting these illicit changes. Once the adjustments were processed. “the bogus numbers were presented to Livent’s audit committee, the auditors, investors, and eventually filed eith the Commission [SEC]”