Unilife investigating former executive, director, for financial reporting issues

A news release from the company doesn’t identify anyone by name involved with the investigation, but it refers to the “company’s former chief executive officer” and the “former chairman of the company’s board of directors who resigned in 2015” as the ones being investigated.

Alan Shortall, who resigned from Unilife earlier this year, is the Conewago Township company’s only former CEO. He is also the company’s founder, and is available currently to the company as a consultant.

In August 2015, Jim Bosnjak retired from the board, citing health reasons, though he planned to stay on as a company adviser as his health allowed. He was the company’s chairman of the board from 2006 to 2013 before Shortall took over as chairman. He was the only member of Unilife’s board that resigned in 2015 and had been a chairman of the board.

Neither Shortall nor Bosnjak could be located for comment.

Company spokesman Jeremy Feffer declined comment on anything past what was in the release, even to confirm whether the investigation surrounds Shortall and Bosnjak.

According to a news release, the company is investigating matters of financial reporting, internal controls over financial reporting related to previous financial statements, current financial information and management certifications.

The company’s current management discovered the issues only recently, but so far, it has not found any financial losses to the company.

Unilife had planned on Monday to release its third quarter earnings for its fiscal year. However, because of what it called a “recent” discovery, it postponed the announcement and did not set a new date.

Messages to Unilife officials were not immediately returned Monday morning.

Dawn Mayko, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said the office could not confirm or deny the existence of any investigation concerning Unilife, Shortall or Bosnjak.

Ryan White, a spokesman for the SEC in Washington, D.C. declined comment.

Unilife trades its shares on the NASDAQ exchange at UNIS.