SENIOR CAPITAL DISMISSES KPMG: Senior Capital Living Corp., a Dallas-based operator of senior residential communities, jettisoned its auditor, Big Four firm KPMG, and named Ernst & Young as its new independent accountant.KPMG's audit report for the year ended Dec. 31, 2005, noted ineffective internal controls over financial reporting. The auditor stated that SCLC's policies and procedures, and allocation of resources, did not provide for an effective review of the company's accounting for income taxes, which was prepared by tax consultants and third-party advisors.
As a result of the deficiency, the company's preliminary accounting for income taxes included errors. In KPMG's opinion, the deficiency also resulted in a likelihood that a material misstatement of the company's interim or annual consolidated financial statements would not be prevented or detected.
The company said that in response to KPMG's report, it had replaced its third-party income tax advisors and consultants, and will provide additional resources to the income-tax-accounting process.
AETRIUM CANS PWC: St. Paul, Minn.-based Aetrium, a designer and manufacturer of electronic equipment, dismissed PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's auditor and subsequently engaged Grant Thornton as its successor.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Aetrium said that PwC's reports on its financials for the fiscal years ended Dec. 31, 2004 and 2005, contained no adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion, and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principle.
SUPERCONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGIES ENGAGES STONEFIELD JOSEPHSON: Superconductor Technologies, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based provider of wireless voice and data applications, hired Stonefield Josephson as its new independent accountant.
Stonefield succeeds Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditor. In a filing, the company said that it had no disagreements with its former auditor.
SUNTRUST CHANGES AUDITORS: Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc., the holding company of the SunTrust Banking brand, named Big Four firm Ernst & Young as its new auditor, succeeding PricewaterhouseCoopers.
SunTrust said in a federal filing that it decided to hire a new auditor as a result of the five-year rotation rule under Sarbanes-Oxley, where the senior audit partners must be rotated.
SunTrust said that it chose E&Y from among a number of candidate firms that submitted proposals.
SunTrust Banks said that it had no disagreements with PwC for the two most recent fiscal years on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure.
