Why the big drop?
savant wrote, "No specific knowledge, however, it is year end tax loss selling time and portfolio adjustment time"
C'mon Savant - You know why it's dropping.
Here is is Dec, 31 and they still haven't released their financial statements. They "expected" to release them on the 29th. It's going to be a long wait.
Since ATCO "dismissed" their publicly certified accountant on Sept 13, and haven't named a replacement since, I fail to understand who will sign off on their statements.
I will imagine it will be difficult to find a replacement given the charges leveled by Swenson to the SEC.
In case you didn't know this Savant, take a look for yourself:
Swenson delivered to the Company's Audit Committee a letter identifying a number of issues that Swenson suggested had strong indications of a material weakness in the Company's control environment and certain regulatory payroll tax matters and filings. Swenson's letter identified issues dating to the audit of the Company's 2006 financial statements and throughout fiscal year 2007 that Swenson believed called into question the Company's ability to meet the "Tone at the Top" requirement promulgated by COSO.....
In its letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission previously filed by the Company(November 6, 2007), Swenson made statements regarding the review and audit scope in connection with the Company's compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
*Swenson Statement: "In our opinion, a member of senior management of the Company attempted to influence the scope of Swenson's work at various meetings with the engagement partner present, and at other times with members of the engagement team when the partner was not present."
*Swenson Statement: "On August 8, 2007, a member of senior management attempted to obtain confidential internal audit documents from one of the Swenson auditors. Swenson did not allow this to occur and suspended all field work as of that date."
sec.gov.
Excerpts of letter from Swenson Advisors, LLP to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission dated September 18, 2007
We have read Item 4.01 of American Technology Corporation's (the "Registrant" or the "Company") Form 8-K dated September 19, 2007, and have the following comments:
Technical Corrections
Item 4.01 (ii) states "Swenson's reports on the Company's consolidated financial statements as of and for each of the fiscal years ended September 30, 2006 and 2005 did not contain an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principles."
Correction: Swenson was engaged to perform an "integrated audit" pursuant to PCAOB standards to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Our reports included opinions on the effectiveness of the Company's internal controls over financial reporting. For each of the fiscal years ended September 30, 2005 and 2006, material weaknesses existed in the Company's internal controls over financial reporting and adverse opinions were issued.
Disagreements Not Identified in Item 4.01
We disagree with the Registrant with respect to the following matters which we believe are strong indications of a material weakness in its Control Environment as the term is used by COSO as of August 10, 2007.
In our letter to the Audit Committee dated August 10, 2007, we identified 12 issues which together suggested that as of that date the Company had strong indications of a material weakness in its Control Environment, and called into question the Company's ability to meet the "Tone at the Top" requirement by COSO.
Swenson requested a meeting with the Audit Committee to discuss in detail the matters in the letter and their possible remediation prior to September 30, 2007. As noted in 2(b) above, the meeting did not occur.
Swenson disagrees with the Registrant's failure to timely amend its payroll tax returns related to the restatement of its share-based compensation/stock options in the prior fiscal year. As noted in Footnote 1 to the consolidated financial statements of the Registrant for the year ended September 30, 2006, the Company had estimated that approximately $200,000 of additional payroll related taxes should have been withheld and remitted. The Company represented to us on January 2, 2007 that they would correct these returns on a timely basis. On three other occasions throughout 2007 (February 8, May 2, and August 7). The Company represented in writing to Swenson that such tax matters would be corrected. In July 2007, Swenson accelerated its inquiry of the status of this matter and discussed it in depth with the Audit Committee Chairperson to underscore the importance of correcting these returns and remitting the applicable taxes to the IRS. As of the date of August 7, 2007 and the filing of its Form 10-Q for the nine months ended June 30, 2007, the Company had not made such filings but communicated to Swenson yet another date in the future.
Except as listed above, we agree with the statements made in response to that Item insofar as they relate to our Firm.
yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com. |
