For years, Macy’s Inc.’s touted its ability to boost profits by cutting delivery costs and trimming other expenses on calls with Wall Street analysts. Then on Monday, the department store chain surprised investors by revealing that those very costs had become the source of an internal investigation into what the company has described as a multimillion-dollar employee plot to manipulate the metrics.

Macy's announced an employee has "hid" up to $154 million, prompting the U.S. department store chain to delay the release of its third-quarter earnings report.

An internal investigation revealed that a single employee intentionally concealed these expenses over nearly three years.

Macy’s says it’s delaying the release of its fiscal third-quarter earnings results after it discovered an up to $154 million accounting-related issue

Macy's posted preliminary third-quarter results but delayed its full earnings report as it investigates up to $154 million in erroneously reported expenses. The company said it discovered the issue when it was preparing its earnings,

Macy’s said an accounting employee hid as much as $154 million in delivery expenses over a three-year period, prompting the retailer to delay the release of third quarter earnings. The New York-based department store chain — which also owns Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury — said in a news release Monday that a single employee was behind the false accounting entries,

Macy’s Inc. is delaying its third-quarter earnings release after an investigation revealed an employee hid more than $100 million of expenses over several years.