Usana appoints new auditor

Usana Health Sciences - a US-based multi-level marketing company with thousands of distributors in New Zealand - has hired PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) as its new auditor.

It's very good news for Usana.

The company has been plagued with problems this year, including investigations by the FBI and US Securities & Exchange Commission, lawsuits by its shareholders and distributors, and high-profile resignations by company promoters who were revealed to have been making false claims about their academic and medical credentials.

Then in July the company's former long-time auditor, Grant Thornton LLP quit over a disagreement "as to the scope of the procedures to be performed by the auditors."

Grant Thornton's resignation left Usana to file its quarterly report without an auditor's review. As a result, the company was warned that it may be de-listed from the stock market.

Usana said its new auditor PwC would get to work immediately on this problem by reviewing the company's recent quarterly results and filing an amended report to comply with stock market rules as soon as possible.

NBR has recently published a series of investigative reports about Usana's practices in New Zealand.

A multi-media enhanced version of this series is available online at www.nbr.co.nz/usana.