Ants Independent Auditor Quits After SEC Filing Santa Barbara, California Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The auditor
for Ants Software.com, a company that says it can accelerate the
speed of computer programs, said he resigned because he was
unaware of a statement contained in a routine filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ants Software, in a registration filed with SEC today,
submitted Chairman Donald Hutton's signature as the certified
public accountant auditing the company's financial statements.
Jaak Olesk, a licensed CPA who audited Ants Software's financial
statements for the fiscal year ended April 30, said he was
unaware of the latest SEC filing and was disturbed by it.
``I need to resign immediately because of this
development,' said Olesk, when asked about the SEC filing. The
outside ``auditor needs to sign' financial statements, ``not a
corporate officer. Clearly,' Hutton ``lacks independence.'
Today's filing may be unusual for another reason.
According to Gregory Newington, chief of the California
Board of Accountancy's enforcement program, the company's
chairman is not licensed as a CPA -- at least in California.
Newington said it's a misdemeanor to identify oneself as a
CPA in the state without a license. He declined to comment on
whether Hutton broke the law.
In an interview last week, Hutton said he was trained as an
accountant in Vancouver, Canada.
Career Shift
``Accountants are a different breed of cat than
entrepreneurs. I've always been an entrepreneur,' said Hutton.
In two telephone calls today, Hutton hung up after being
asked if he was licensed as a CPA in any state. In an interview
last week, he said he was previously a chartered accountant in
British Columbia. Hutton also declined comment on Olesk's plan to
resign.
Fred Pettit, chief executive officer, wasn't available for
comment.
Hutton signed the ``Consent of Certified Public Accountant'
attached to today's filing as ``Donald Hutton, CPA.' The consent
gave permission to include September's Form 10-SB registration in
today's SEC filing by Ants to register stock options for its ex-
president, John Wilczak.
Wilczak was president for six months, from November 1998
until May 1. A severance agreement, dated Dec. 8, gave Wilczak
options to buy 80,000 shares of Ants stock at 50 cents a share
for five years. On that day, the company's shares closed at 14
1/32, giving the options an intrinsic value of more than $1
million. The agreement was part of today's SEC filing.
Ants gained 10 to 29 1/4 in trading of 619,400 shares, after
touching 22. The shares have been volatile in recent days,
falling from a high of 55 5/8 two weeks ago to a low of 5 1/2 on
Thursday.
Last week, Bloomberg reported the 20-year old software
developer -- which has no revenue -- sold restricted stock valued
at $4.8 million over the past two months at half the market price
at the time of sales. |
