American Skiing Company said on Tuesday it will have to re-audit its financial statements for 2000 and 2001 because its former accounting firm, Arthur Anderson LLP, has stopped performing audits of public companies.

KPMG takes over the auditing
Utah-based American Skiing operates ski, snowboard and golf resorts throughout the United States, including Sugarloaf in Maine, Steamboat in Colorado and The Canyons in Utah.

After American Skiing sold Heavenly ski resort in California, the company's new bookkeeper, KPMG, said that a recent decision by the Auditing Standards Board would require a re-audit of the 2000 and 2001 financial statements to account for the discontinued operation.

Andersen, convicted by a federal jury of obstruction of justice, is unable to issue a report on previous years results on the California operation, as required by accounting rules.

New standards will have effects accross the board
The re-audit is likely to be time-consuming, American Skiing says, and the company will miss an Oct. 27 deadline for filing its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. American Skiing said there are no known problems with the financial statements from those years. Work has already begun on the audits.

'This interpretation of auditing standards is a national issue which we expect will affect many companies,'' said Mark Miller, American Skiing's chief financial officer.

[Source: Associated Press]