A key lesson from the April 25 Celadon Group Inc. accounting fraud case is that a company's response to a federal investigation can be paramount to obtaining a deferred prosecution agreement and avoiding an independent compliance monitor.

That's the opinion of Julie Myers Wood, CEO of compliance consultant Guidepost Solutions, after Celadon announced Thursday that it signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. The Indianapolis-based trucking company agreed to pay $42.2 million in restitution to shareholders to settle securities fraud charges for “filing materially false and misleading statements to investors and falsifying books, records and accounts.”

The agreement runs for five years and does not impose a compliance monitor on the company, which also settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.