Quintus in the dock over reporting irregularities

Executives at Quintus Corporation are today fighting a securities class action law suit filed in a Californian US District Court over the issuing of misleading financial information.

The case has been brought by Wolf Popper LLP on behalf of everyone who bought Quintus shares during July 20 2000 and 14 November 2000. It accuses the eCRM vendor of under-reporting its revenue and losses for the period between 15 November 1999 and 15 November 2000. Quintus may be told to restate financial statements for the first and second quarters of the fiscal year 2001 that ended 30 June 2000 and 30 September 2000 respectively. Alan Anderson, chairman and CEO at Quintus, who has since been placed on administrative leave and Susan Salvesen, CFO at Quintus, who is helping with the investigation, are both named in the law suit. The Board of Directors has announced that PricewaterhouseCoopers is investigating financial reporting matters, under the supervision of the audit committee of the board of directors. Quintus has also delayed the filing of its Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pending the investigation of revenue and accounts for that period. Shares in Quintus dropped more than 50 per cent to $2-31/32 before NASDAQ halted trading. Paul Bartlett, COO at Quintus, has been installed as acting CEO. Quintus refused to comment.