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Palmetto's Telesis is subject of federal probe
By MICHAEL POLLICK
PALMETTO -- Telesis Technology, which maintains weapons systems for the Department of Defense and makes components for larger defense contractors, acknowledged Tuesday that is the subject of a federal criminal investigation regarding the quality of its work.
Hasit Vibhakar, the company's 33-year-old founder and chief executive, said he, too, may be a subject of the investigation by an as-yet-unnamed federal agency.
In an interview, Vibhakar said that he does not know what agency is investigating his company yet, even though agents have already combed through records at the Telesis offices in Palmetto this month.
"I wasn't there at that time," Vibhakar said. "The search warrant is sealed."
Vibhakar minimized the importance of the criminal inquiry, even though a terse document filed late Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the investigation could mean the company ceases to exist as an SEC-regulated public stock company.
"It is pretty standard stuff, really," Vibhakar said. "Every government contractor goes through tremendous scrutiny."
The company's thinly traded, over-the-counter shares plummeted on Tuesday, closing at 8.5 cents, down 21.5 cents, or about 72 percent.
Telesis went public in April 2004 and became a fully reporting stock company in November 2004 by filing a registration statement with the SEC. The company is late in filing a 2005 annual report to the SEC and has also not filed its first quarter report.
As a result of the inquiry and "the complications that may be caused both to the timely filing of its public reports and to its operations as a whole, as a result of the investigation, it may not ever file such quarterly report and/or any other reports which it is required to file with the Commission.
"Additionally, as a result of the investigation and complications caused thereby, we may decide to take actions in the future to cease being a company subject to the reporting obligations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934."
Vibhakar provided limited guidance as to the scope of the inquiry: "There are no other countries involved. This has to do with quality of product."
Meanwhile, Telesis' plan, announced in November 2004, to move most of its operations to Superior, Neb., have not gotten very far, said Bill Blauvelt, publisher of the Superior Express, a weekly newspaper there.
"It has been an empty warehouse," Blauvelt said. "Nothing happening there -- one employee, maybe two or three."
Vibhakar confirmed that the move to Superior, like the company itself, is at a standstill.
"Our plans there are on hold due to this situation." |
