(Fuente: Expansión 15/02/07)
" El juez instructor del Caso Afinsa en la Audiencia Nacional, Santiago Pedraz, ha pedido a la Dirección de la Oficina de Asuntos Internacionales de la Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) en Washington –el organismo supervisor de los mercados de valores en Estados Unidos– que le haga llegar un informe encargado por el Comité de Auditoría de Escala Group, filial estadounidense de Afinsa, que reveló ayer EXPANSIÓN. Este documento, elaborado por Kirland & Ellis, el segundo mayor despacho de abogados de Estados Unidos, el 15 de diciembre de 2006, concluye que Escala no cometió fraude alguno en sus relaciones con Afinsa, ni operó de forma fraudulenta en relación a los clientes españoles. Además, añade que el material filatélico utilizado por la empresa antes del 9 de mayo del año pasado, fecha de la intervención judicial, era auténtico, y sostiene que las posibles “insuficiencias” encontradas en las relaciones entre ambas compañías no eran “intencionadas”, y no suponían un intento de confundir a los inversores de Escala."
(Fuente: Newsroom Escala Group 19/12/06)
Escala to Restate Financial Statements, Discloses Results of Internal Investigation
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2006--Escala Group (Nasdaq: ESCL) announced today that the Company will restate its previously reported financial statements for its fiscal years ended June 30, 2003; June 30, 2004; June 30, 2005; and for the first three quarters of the fiscal year ended June 30, 2006. The Company previously reported that its Board of Directors had directed the Audit Committee to review the transactions between the Company and the Company's majority shareholder, Afinsa Bienes Tangibles, S.A. ("Afinsa").
The Audit Committee's investigation is complete, and based on the findings of that investigation and after consultation with the acting Chief Executive Officer, the Company's Board of Directors and Audit Committee have determined to restate the Company's financial statements. The Company is considering the precise extent of the restatement, but expects that the restatement will relate primarily to the reporting of certain of the transactions between the Company and Afinsa, the totality of which had been reported in its financial statements as "related-party sales" and which are now part of the Company's discontinued operations, as described below. Specifically, certain archival sales for which the cash consideration received from Afinsa was recognized entirely as revenue from a related party should have been recorded as a combination of revenue from a related party and additional paid-in capital. Archival sales refer to cash sales to Afinsa of large and unique collections of archival material for which, in most cases, there was no substantial sales history. These sales represented a significant portion of the Company's previously reported revenues for the years ended June 30, 2006, 2005 and 2004. The Company currently estimates that such archival sales comprised approximately $73 million of the $417 million in total sales to Afinsa over the time period in question, but such sales accounted for a larger percentage contribution to the gross profits recorded during the period.
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Results of Audit Committee Investigation
On December 15, 2006, the Audit Committee presented to the Company's Board of Directors the results of its investigation into the Company's transactions with Afinsa.
During the course of its investigation, the Audit Committee retained the independent law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, which in turn engaged independent accounting consultants, to investigate and report to the Audit Committee. With its advisors, the Committee examined the business transactions that the Company had entered into with Afinsa between June 2003 (the time of the first significant sale to Afinsa) and May 2006 (when Spanish authorities closed Afinsa's operations), including various ma