PRELIMINARY STATEMENT Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (now Obsidian Energy) was one of the largest oil producers in Canada but historically struggled to keep its operating costs—a key financial metric that the investing public looks to when evaluating the financial health of an oil and gas company—under control. As a result, in 2012, 2013, and the first quarter of 2014 (the “Relevant Period”), Defendants executed a scheme to make the annual and quarterly financial reports that Penn West, a publicly-traded company, submitted to the SEC and disclosed to investors tell a different story about the company’s financial condition than the one that existed. The object of the scheme was to deceive the investing public by understating Penn West’s publicly reported operating expenses and related financial metrics and making the company appear to be managing costs more efficiently than it was. In other words, as a result of the Defendants’ scheme, it appeared that Penn West was spending less money to get oil out of the ground than it was. (U.s. securities and exchange: commission, 2017) . After the accounting improprieties were discovered, they resulted in serious consequences for several groups of stakeholders. Describe the penalties, punishment and/or other negative repercussions to the following stakeholders: • The company • Employees of the company • The company’s key executives: Todd Takeyasu (former CFO), Jeffery Curran (former VP of Accounting and Reporting), and Waldemar Grab (former Operations Controller) • Shareholders who owned Obsidian Energy Ltd. (“Penn West”)’s stock before and at the time the scandal was reported (Support your answers with Graphs, Tables, Figures or Charts whatever may be applicable)

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