SEC Company Response from LARREA BIOSCIENCES CORP (CIK 0001175594) — Aug 17, 2005
LARREA BIOSCIENCES CORP (CIK 0001175594)
Date: Aug. 17, 2005 · CIK: 0001175594 · Accession: 0001144204-05-026099
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 000-50281
Referenced dates: April 21, 2005
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August 11, 2005
Ms. Tia Jenkins
Senior Assistant Chief Accountant
Office of Emerging Growth Companies
Securities and Exchange Commission
Re: Larrea Biosciences Corporation
File Number 000-50281
Correspondence filed 04/06/05
Form 10-Q9B/A filed 04/06/05
Form 10-QSB filed 04/05/05
Form 8-K/A filed 04/00/04, amended 03/29/05
Form S-K filed 03/28/05
Form 8-K filed 09/21/04
Form 10-KSB/A filed 08/30/04
Dear Ms. Jenkins:
Please accept the following information in response to your most recent
letter dated April 21, 2005. As requested we have maintained the format
you provided and have included the original question as part of the
response.
Form 8-K filed September 21, 2004
1. We note your response to comment 5. The financial statements required
by Item 9.01 of Form 8-K should be filed in an amendment no later than 75
days after the completion of the acquisition. Please amend this filing to
include the pre-merger financial statements of LarreaRx, Inc. and other
information prescribed by Item 3 10(c) and (d) of Regulation S-B or to us
why such information is not required.
Because the former owners/management of Larrea Biosciences Corporation
failed to prepare or have audited pre-merger financial statements for
LarreaRx, Inc. , a private company at the time, we are unable to provide
audited financial statements for the acquired company. As our auditors
have stated in their audit opinion on Larrea Biosciences, there was no
inventory observation at the time of the merger and they were unable to
satisfy themselves regarding inventory quantities by means of other
auditing procedures. Based on the limited activity of LarreaRx, Inc. in
its pre-merger form and the subsequent audit and filing of the Larrea
Biosciences Corporation's Form 10-KSB , the Company and its auditors
believe that further efforts to produce meaningful and reasonably accurate
financial statements would not generate any materially useful information
for investors or management. The Company there fore respectfully request
that compliance with this item be considered satisfied by the submission
of the current audited financial statements.
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Form 8-K filed March 28, 2005
2. In future filings, please note that a change in principal independent
accountant is considered an Item 4.01 event under the Form 8-K rules.
Noted for future filings.
3. Please revise to include disclosures in accordance with Item 304 of
Regulation S-B. These revisions should include a discussion related to the
accountant's report on the financial statements of the Company (Item
304(a)(l)) a discussion of any disagreements through the date of
resignation (Item 304(a)(l)(iv)(A)) and a discussion related to any
consultations with LDMB Advisors through the date of engagement (Item
304(a)(2)). As Exhibit 16 to your revision, include a letter from Madsen &
Associates indicating their agreement or disagreement with statements made
in your amended Item 4.01
Form 8-K (Item 4(a)(3)).
We have requested the letter from Madsen & Associates. To date, neither we
nor our auditors have received any response to our telephone calls or
written communications to either agree or disagree with the positions that
have been taken. Given the limited activity of the Company during the time
period Madsen were the auditors, further efforts to obtain a statement
from Madsen are not likely to be successful or to yield any material
information for investors .
Form 8-K/A filed March 29, 2005
4. Please ask the independent auditors of GBI to revise their report to
present the name and electronic signature of the audit firm.
We have notified the auditors of your request and have asked them to
comply.
5. We note $986,111 in patents on the balance sheet as of April 30, 2004.
Revise the financial statements to report the historical cost of the
patents, as reflected in your response to our prior comment 6 and the
related revisions made in the Form 10-QSB for October 31, 2004. Provide a
note to the financial statements that explains all revisions made, in
accordance with paragraph 37 of AP 20 Obtain an updated audit report, as
necessary to comply with AICPA Auditing Standards Section 56 1.06a, with
dual dating of the audit report necessary in some circumstances.
The changes requested have been made and submitted as the attached Exhibit
5.0.
Form 10-QSB/A. for the quarter ended October 31. 2004. filed April 6. 2005
6. We reviewed your response to comment #6 noting the value of the patents
is now recorded at the historical cost of Larreacorp. Tell us
supplementally of the relationship between the Company, GBI, LarreaRx and
Larreacorp. Include in your response details of common directors and
shareholder (e.g. the shareholders of Company X own X% of Company Y and
the majority of Company X's directors are 100% of the directors of Company
Y, etc.).
a.) The relationship between the companies mentioned above is as
follows.:
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i. Presently Larrea Biosciences Corporation owns 100% of Global Botanics,
Inc. and LarreaRx, Inc.. Peter P. Smetek, Jr. in his role as Chief
Executive Officer of Larrea Biosciences Corporation is the sole officer
and director of LarreaRx, Inc. and Global Botanics, Inc. He is not and
officer, director or shareholder of Larreacorp, Ltd. The history of the
relationship between these entities is set out below.
ii. Larreacorp, Ltd. is a privately-held company created to develop patentable
applications for extracts of the Larrea Tridentata plant. It was formed
and owned by Robert Sinnott, PhD. who is also a shareholder and director
of Larrea Biosciences Corporation. He is the primary inventor of the
patents which create the proprietary formulation of Larrea tridentata
extract used as the key ingredient in the dietary supplements marketed and
sold by Larrea Biosciences Corporation, the publicly traded corporation
which is the subject of this request. Larreacorp, Ltd. continues to be
owned by Mr. Sinnott. Currently, there are no contracts or other active
relationships between these two companies. Larrea Biosciences Corporation
and its subsidiaries do not own any stock in Larreacorp, Ltd. and other
than Mr. Sinnott none of the directors and officers of Larrea Biosciences
Corporation are officers or directors of Larreacorp, Ltd.
iii. Global Botanics, Inc. (GBI) was originally formed as a privately-held
company owned by Mr. Sinnott to manufacture and commercialize the patented
Larrea tridentata extract using the patents owned by Larreacorp, Ltd.. GBI
had the exclusive rights to license the patents held by Larreacorp Ltd..
1. GBI licensed the patents to LarreaRx, Inc. which at the time of the
licensing was a privately-held Wyoming corporation formed by
unrelated third parties to incorporate the patented extract into
dietary supplements.
2. GBI had also entered into an agreement with Larreacorp, Ltd. to
purchase the related patents outright over time from Larreacorp,
Ltd. GBI and Larreacorp, Ltd. had common ownership with Robert
Sinnott and his family as 100% owners , officers and directors of
both.
3. The third party shareholders of LarreaRx, Inc. acquired a
publicly-traded company named Sonic Media, Inc. through a reverse
merger and renamed it Larrea Biosciences Corporation ("LBC").
LarreaRx, Inc. became a 100% owned subsidiary of LBC.
a. LBC, through its subsidiary LarreaRx Inc.'s business, was
expanding the sales of its Larrea tridentata extract products
and it wanted to become more than a licensee. In order to gain
the rights to the patents it currently used in its products
under a licensing relationship with GBI,. LBC acquired GBI in
a share exchange transaction and became the owner of the
patents and assumed GBI's rights under the patent purchase
agreement GBI had with Larreacorp, Ltd. As a result of the
share exchange GBI became a 100%
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owned subsidiary of LBC and Robert Sinnott became an officer,
director and shareholder of Larrea Biosciences Corporation in
2004. Mr Sinnott resigned from the board of directors of
Larrea Biosciences Corporation as of May 16, 2005.
b. As part of the acquisition transaction a third party investor
agreed to pay the scheduled cash payments under the patent
purchase agreement between GBI and Larreacorp, Ltd.. in
exchange for a certain number of shares of LBC stock. LBC
provided the stock and eliminated its cash obligations under
the purchase agreement note.
c. Larreacorp, Ltd. was not acquired by Larrea Biosciences
Corporation and remains a privately held company owned by Mr.
Sinnott.
Financial Statements
7. In accordance with paragraph 5 of APB 12, revise the disclosures of
depreciable assets and depreciation in the financial statements or notes
thereto to include:
o The basis of determining the amounts shown in the balance sheet,
such as cost
o Balances of major closes of depreciable property presented by nature
or function at the balance-sheet date
o Accumulated depreciation presented by major classes of assets or in
total at the balance-sheet date . A description of the method(s)
used to compute depreciation for major classes of depreciable assets
o The amount of depreciation expense for each year for which an income
statement is presented
In the current Form 10-KSB the disclosures provided in the audited
financial statements for the year ended April 30, 2005 under Note 3 and
Note 7 provide the information requested.
8. Disclose the nature and amount of the major component of accrued
expenses in a note or state them separately on the balance sheet for the
periods presented.
On January 31, 2005 there were accrued expenses of $10,700 representing
audit fees for the Company's auditor LDMB Advisors, Inc. The balance of
the entry was accounts payable.
9. We reviewed your response to comment #15 indicating a different
treatment of the $200,000 loss on debt settlement. Upon review of
the April 2004 balance sheet presented in Form 10-QSB, it appears
the $200,000 loss on debt settlement is included in the retained
deficit balance of $1,170,375, Also, we note a $200,000 loss on debt
settlement has been reported on the statement of operations of GBI
for the period ending April 30, 2004, included in the Form 8-K filed
on March 29, 2005. Please explain to us supplementally the Company's
treatment of the SMI's $ million note issued to Larrea Corp for its
patents and the note's subsequent assumption by GBI shareholders for
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50,000 shares. Address the issues raised in our prior comment and
include appropriate references to relevant authoritative guidance in
your response. The details of the changes are utlined in Note 4 of
the audited financial statements for year ended April 30,2005.
a. By treating GBI as the acquiror the treatment of the note
changed and there was not a loss recognized.
b. SMI Re, Inc. did not provide a note to GBI or Larrea
Biosciences Corporation for the acquisition of the patent
rights. The note between Larreacorp and GBI for the
acquisition of the patent rights was in place prior to the
merger of GBI and Larrea Biosciences. The obligations under
this note were subsequently assumed by a third party in
exchange for shares in Larrea Biosciences shares. (See item 6
and 17).
c. A note was not assumed by GBI shareholders regarding the
patents.
10. The stockholders' equity accounts on the April 30, 2004
balance sheet, do not agree with, the amounts reported on the
statement of stockholders' equity as of April 30, 2004. Revise to
retroactively restate the equity section of the balance sheet and
the statement of Stockholders" equity to reflect the effect of
the exchange ratio established in the merger agreement.
These changes were made and filed in the Company's current year
Form 10-KSB filing.
11. Since Global Botanics, Inc. is considered the accounting acquiror, the
accumulated deficit should equal that of GBI for periods prior to the
merger. Please revise to report the accumulated deficit of Global
Botanics, Inc. as of April 30, 2004. The accumulated deficit as of October
31, 2004, should equal the accumulated deficit of GBI at the date of the
merger, adjusted for transaction costs, if any and for the net loss for
the period after the merger. Please revise as necessary.
The changes are reflected in the Form 10-KSB for the year ended April 30,
2005 in the audited financial statements Note 4. Restatement of Prior
Years.
Footnotes
12. Please revise the statement of cash flows to appropriately present the
financing activities related to the apparent overdraft of cash of $55,590
as of October 31, 2003. It appears the cash balance as of October 31,
2003, should be reported.
The Statement of Cash Flows in the Form 10-KSB for April 30, 2005 reflects
the items impacting cash flow for the operating history of the Company.
13. Provide a note to the financial statements that explains the revisions
that were made. Refer to paragraph 37 of APB 20.
The corrections and changes to the prior financial statements are
disclosed in Note 4 to the audited financial statements, Restatement of
Prior Years .
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14. Please revise to include a discussion of the major components of
inventory (raw materials, work-in-progress, finished goods, etc.) and a
discussion of the amount and determination of a reserve for obsolescence,
if any.
Larrea's products are all based on the extract from the Larrea Tridentata
plant. It produces the extract in the form of capsules, lotion and a
spray. For each of these three forms of the product the initial raw
material is a semi-liquid resin derived directly from the plant. This
resin is produced by using the Company's proprietary extraction method .
a. Resin is purchased from a contract producer that gathers the
leaves, dries them and the n manufactures the resin. Resin is
typically purchased in lots of 100 - 200 kilograms and is held
in that raw form on the pre