That same day, the Company disclosed the abrupt departure of its Chief Financial Officer Joseph J. Euteneuer. Finally, on Nov. 6, 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Company's finance team uncovered an accounting error in early 2018 whose effect was to reduce Mattel's loss for 3Q 2017. Brett Whitaker, who was Mattel's director of tax reporting at the time, reportedly said Mattel's finance team discussed fixing the problem and restating earnings but instead they and PricewaterhouseCoopers decided to bury the problem. According to Mr. Whitaker, "[m]y team was dumbfounded by it" and a PwC tax partner was "walking down the hall, high-fiving people, after this decision was made."