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First Place CFO Clarifies Chairman’s Remarks
WARREN, Ohio – The chief financial officer of First Place Financial Corp., David W. Gifford, issued a statement Wednesday intended to clarify seemingly overly optimistic remarks made by Sam Roth, the nonexecutive chairman of the board, as reported in the press last Saturday.
The boards of First Place Financial Corp. and its principal subsidiary, First Place Bank, Friday terminated Steven R. Lewis as president and CEO of the holding company and CEO of the bank after the company was delisted from the Nasdaq exchange last November, regulators imposed a cease-and-desist order on the bank last July and instructed the company to restate its earnings for its fiscal 2008, 2009 and 2010.
The First Place fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.
“We have great liquidity and great earnings as we go along. Things are going well,” Roth was reported to have said. He was also quoted as saying the leadership of the company is “confident things will be better soon. We should have restatements before very long.”
Addressing the quotes attributed to Roth, Gifford said, “Through the restatement process we have managed our liquidity in a prudent and proactive manner. In light of the additional stress brought on by recent economic conditions, the [Office of the Controller of the Currency] regulatory orders and the restatement, we have maintained an elevated level of liquidity over the past year.”
Moving to Roth’s assessment of progress made regarding the restatement of First Place earnings, Gifford said, “While we have made significant progress toward completing our restatement, as well as our [Securities and Exchange Commission] filings for subsequent periods, the consolidated financial statements are still being finalized. As such it would be premature for us to make any statements at this time regarding the potential impact on our financial condition or results of operations for the periods under restatement or fiscal years 2011 and 2012. We look forward to completing our restatement and returning our attention to our core banking business.”
First Place intends to bring its delinquent SEC filings “to a current status and complete the statements as soon as practicable,” the statement concluded.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.