(June 22): Singapore’s SPH Media Group filed a police report in the aftermath of an internal investigation into overstated circulation figures.

The board’s Audit and Risk Committee recommended filing the police report as “certain observations may potentially constitute offences”, SPH Media said in a statement Wednesday (June 21).

The probe concluded on June 16 found no material accounting impact to the group’s financial statements for the year ended Aug 31, 2022. Actions taken against employees or ex-employees were “reasonably justified” and there was no evidence that journalism and editorial departments were involved in overstating the numbers, SPH Media said.

Since the police report was filed, the group said it redacted some information “for good order” including the identities of certain parties, details of the transactions and possible offences. The police are looking into the matter, the Straits Times reported.

The media company in January said circulation numbers in some months between September 2020 and March 2022 were found to be overstated by up to 90,000 average daily copies.