Feb 05, 2016 (ACCESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 5, 2016 / Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (otc pink:TAUG) or ("Tauriga" or the "Company"), a diversified life sciences company focused on building its existing technologies and evaluating potential acquisition candidates, today provided shareholders with two important updates relating to its ongoing litigation with its predecessor audit firm Cowan Gunteski & Co. PA ("Cowan Gunteski") and its efforts to regain its status as a fully reporting OTCQB listed company. The Company is also actively evaluating potential acquisition candidate(s) in the life sciences space, should the Company be successful in its current initiatives.
On Wednesday, February 3, 2016, Tauriga spent the day with Cowan Gunteski, including the firm's Managing Partner ("Donald Cowan"), the former auditing partner William Meyler ("Bill Meyler"), and the malpractice insurance company adjuster ("insurance adjuster") during an all-day mediation session in New York City. While the parties spent hours discussing the pertinent facts as well as potential settlement figures, the parties were unable to reach a resolution. Tauriga, through its legal counsel Silverberg & Weiss ("Paul Silverberg"), was able to determine significant weaknesses in Cowan Gunteski's defense and is increasingly confident in the Company's ability to collect on a substantial judgment. The above-mentioned parties will spend the next few weeks continuing the settlement efforts and expect to move forward with litigation thereafter, if no settlement is reached. It is expected that if litigation continues, that this matter would be concluded in approximately 18 months. Tauriga has requested a trial by jury (Federal Court, Southern District Florida) and expects this will be to its advantage.
With respect to its efforts to regain compliance with the SEC rules that govern fully reporting U.S. based public companies, Tauriga expects that it will finally be in possession of the Fiscal Year 2014 ("FY 2014") work papers that are required by the Company's new audit firm ("current auditor") to re-audit FY 2014 financial statements. The Company, as well as its current auditor, have been requesting that the predecessor audit firm return these FY 2014 work papers since June of 2015. After the predecessor audit firm was publicly censured by PCAOB on July 23, 2015, the current auditor requested the release of the FY 2014 work papers multiple times (this occurred during early August 2015). The Company is hopeful that it will obtain these FY 2014 work papers, in their entirety, in the near term and once in possession of such work papers, the Company will work as quickly as it can to regain its OTCQB listing status as a fully reporting U.S. public Company.
Tauriga's CEO Seth M. Shaw commented "The Company has been working diligently to protect its shareholders through the prosecution of its ongoing litigation against the predecessor audit firm Cowan Gunteski. The Company has been unable to reliably secure funding since its removal from the OTCQB on July 31, 2015, due to the fact that potential investors can no longer depend on Rule 144 exemptions as they pertain to direct investments. The Company is extremely confident in its ability to collect any potential future judgement awarded to Tauriga as a result of the jury trial in Federal Court. Lastly, the Company is not planning any reverse splits at this time and remains hopeful that it will not be necessary to implement one."
