Suffolk Bancorp has hired a new accounting firm.
The Riverhead-based bank, which was threatened with delisting by the NASDAQ stock market last year for failure to file timely quarterly financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced last night it has hired BDO USA, LLP as its new independent registered public accounting firm, effective immediately.
BDO replaces Grant Thornton LLP in that capacity and will audit the company's financial statements for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2011.
Howard C. Bluver, Suffolk's president and CEO, said in a statement the decision was "not a result of any disagreement with our prior accountants on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure." Instead, the change was "in connection with our movement into a new chapter of our company’s life," Bluver said.
On Jan. 3, the bank announced the resignation of president and CEO J. Gordon Huszagh, a 29-year veteran of Suffolk who had spent the last three-and-a-half years as its president and CEO, and the hiring of Bluver as his replacement.
After the Office of he Comptroller of the Currency determined the 100-year-old community bank "in troubled condition" and said Suffolk had unsafe and unsound banking practices relating to asset quality, compliance and management, Suffolk signed an agreement with regulators in October 2010 promising to establish a three-year plan and capital program, maintain an adequate allowance for loan losses and re-assess its real property appraisal, credit risk management and credit concentrations.
In December 2010, longtime executive vice president and chief lending officer Robert C. Dick resigned. Dick was replaced in May of 2011 by Karen A. Hamilton.
In June 2011 — after announcing a $12.9 million first-quarter loss in April and alerting regulators in May that it would not meet its SEC filing deadline for its first-quarter report and might need to restate its financial statements for one or more prior periods — the bank announced the resignation of executive vice president and chief financial officer Stacey L. Moran. The bank then failed to meet the SEC filing deadline for the second quarterly report.
The NASDAQ stock exchange notified Suffolk it would be delisted for its failure to file timely quarterly reportes required by the SEC. The bank appealed the delisting determination and had a hearing scheduled for Jan. 2012.
In December, the bank announced it had brought its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission up to date, with the release of restated results of operations for the third quarter of 2010, restated results for the year ended Dec. 31, 2010 and results of operations during the first three quarters of 2011. Suffolk had returned to profitability in the second and third quarters of 2011, according to its filings.
The bank is facing several class action suits by shareholders, who saw stock values drop from $24.68 per share in December 2010 to $10.76 per share in December 2011, hitting a low of under $8 per share during the fiscal year.