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SureBeam Fires Auditor After Concerns Raised

NEW YORK - SureBeam Corp. on Thursday said it fired Deloitte & Touche -- its third dismissal of an accounting firm in little over a year -- after the accounting firm raised concerns over how SureBeam had booked revenue from certain contracts starting in 2000, Reuters reports.

The San Diego-based company, which provides technology for irradiating food, said it stood by the accounting method it had used, which it said its previous two auditors had vouched for and regulators had reviewed in 2001 and had not objected to.

SureBeam fired KPMG as its outside auditor in June, for "fee-related" reasons, spokesman Mark Stephenson said. Last year, SureBeam, like many others, also dismissed Arthur Andersen, which collapsed because of its role in the Enron scandal.

A spokesman denied the company was opinion shopping and said its decision to fire Deloitte was in the best interests of its shareholders.

"I can emphatically state that we're not opinion shopping," Stephenson told Reuters. "We feel very strongly about our position, and moving forward, it wasn't appropriate without obtaining another opinion."

In July, SureBeam had announced the review of its accounting and delayed filing its earnings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SureBeam said it is now looking for a new accounting firm to conduct an independent review of the issues raised by Deloitte.
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