My take is that it's real. Newspapers don't allow their reporters to publish allegations of that kind without doing some fact-checking. They don't like lawsuits, and I have no doubt the NY Post article was okayed by the legal department before it was published.
In an initial, "informal" investigation, the SEC asks questions of the company. We know there are problems with the financials, and that the company has said it will address those problems. That's not likely to be a quick process.
If the company is able to satisfy any other questions the SEC may have, then presumably everything will be all right and the investigation will be dropped. If not, it will proceed to the "formal" stage.