The Securities and Exchange Commission formally announced that it will not take action against Taser International Inc. after completing an investigation into safety claims, accounting practices and issues related to trading of the stun-gun maker's stock.
In late 2004, Taser said that the SEC had launched an inquiry into claims the company has made about its safety studies, and that regulators were also looking into a $1.5 million, end-of-year sale that some analysts had questioned, saying the deal appeared to inflate sales to meet annual projections. Then, in May 2005, Taser said that miscalculated tax amounts related to employee stock options had led to the restatement of its 2004 earnings and reported that its accountant had discovered an internal controls weakness.
In September 2005, the SEC announced that it was formally investigating the company on those issues, and had expanded the scope of the investigation to examine whether outsiders had acquired internal company information to manipulate the stock price.Separately, Taser announced late last week that it would be delay the filing its first-quarter financial report after finding that it used incorrect methods to calculate manufacturing expenses. Taser also said in the filing that it found a clerical error that resulted in an overstatement of inventory and income.
