10-K/A 1 v163098_10ka.htm
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K/A

AMENDMENT NO. 1

x
ANNUAL REPORT UNDER SECTION 13 0R 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended                    December 31, 2008                        

¨
TRANSITION REPORT UNDER SECTION 13 0R 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from______________
Commission file number            00-53475          

CYBERDEFENDER CORPORATION
(Name of registrant in its charter)

California
 
65-1205833
 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)
 
 (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
     
617 West 7th Street, Suite 401, Los Angeles, California
 
90017
 (Address of principal executive offices)
 
 (Zip Code)

Issuer’s telephone number (213) 689-8631

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:  None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:  Common Stock, no par value

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ¨ Yes x No

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. ¨ Yes x No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act during the last 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company.

Large accelerated filer ¨
Accelerated filer ¨
   
Non-accelerated filer ¨ (Do not check if a smaller reporting company)
Smaller reporting company x

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).
¨ Yes x No

State the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter.  On June 30, 2008, the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates was $12,551,026.

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer’s classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date. As of March 27, 2009 the number of shares of the registrant’s classes of common stock outstanding was 19,195,114.

List hereunder the following documents if incorporated by reference and the Part of the Form 10-K (eg., Part I, Part II, etc.) into which the document is incorporated:  (1) Any annual report to security holders; (2) Any proxy or information statement; and (3) Any prospectus filed pursuant to Rule 424(b) or (c) under the Securities Act of 1933.  The listed documents should be clearly described for identification purposes.

 
 

 

EXPLANATORY NOTE

On October 6, 2009 we received a comment letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 which we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 31, 2009 (the “Original Report”).  The primary purpose of this amendment to the Original Report (the “Amendment”) is to respond to the comment letter.

In this Amendment we have revised the discussion of our controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting included in Item 9A, “Disclosure Controls and Procedures”.

This Amendment includes information contained in the Original Report, and we have made no attempt in the Amendment to modify or update the disclosures presented in the Original Report, except as identified above.  The disclosures in this Amendment continue to speak as of the date of the Original Report, and do not reflect events occurring after the filing of the Original Report.  Accordingly, this Amendment should be read in conjunction with our other filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission subsequent to the filing of the Original Report, including any amendments to those filings.  The filing of this Amendment shall not be deemed to be an admission that the Original Report, when made, included any untrue statement of a material fact or omitted to state a material fact necessary to make a statement not misleading.

 
 

 

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures

Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Regulations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) require public companies to maintain “disclosure controls and procedures,” which are defined as controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by the issuer in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission's rules and forms.  Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by an issuer in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the issuer's management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

We conducted an evaluation, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2008.  Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that as of December 31, 2008, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective at the reasonable assurance level due to the material weaknesses described below.

In light of the material weaknesses described below, we performed additional analysis and other post-closing procedures to ensure our financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.  Accordingly, we believe that the financial statements included in this report fairly present, in all material respects, our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented.

A material weakness is a control deficiency (within the meaning of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Auditing Standard No. 2) or combination of control deficiencies, that result in more than a remote likelihood that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected.  Management has identified the following three material weaknesses which have caused management to conclude that, as of December 31, 2008, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective at the reasonable assurance level:

1.           We do not have written documentation of our internal control policies and procedures.  Written documentation of key internal controls over financial reporting is a requirement of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which is applicable to us for the year ending December 31, 2008.  Management evaluated the impact of our failure to have written documentation of our internal controls and procedures on our assessment of our disclosure controls and procedures and has concluded that the control deficiency that resulted represented a material weakness.

 
 

 

2.           We do not have sufficient segregation of duties within accounting functions, which is a basic internal control.  Due to our size and nature, segregation of all conflicting duties may not always be possible and may not be economically feasible.  However, to the extent possible, the initiation of transactions, the custody of assets and the recording of transactions should be performed by separate individuals.  Management evaluated the impact of our failure to have segregation of duties on our assessment of our disclosure controls and procedures and has concluded that the control deficiency that resulted represented a material weakness.

3.           We have had, and continue to have, a significant number of audit adjustments.  Audit adjustments are the result of a failure of the internal controls to prevent or detect misstatements of accounting information.  The failure could be due to inadequate design of the internal controls or to a misapplication or override of controls.  Management evaluated the impact of our significant number of audit adjustments and has concluded that the control deficiency that resulted represented a material weakness.

To address these material weaknesses, management performed additional analyses and other procedures to ensure that the financial statements included herein fairly present, in all material respects, our financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented.

Remediation of Material Weaknesses

We have attempted to remediate the material weaknesses in our disclosure controls and procedures identified above by hiring a full-time CFO, with SEC reporting experience, in January 2009 and by working with our independent registered public accounting firm and refining our internal procedures.  To date, we have not been successful in reducing the number of audit adjustments, but will continue our efforts in the coming fiscal year as more fully detailed below.

Management's Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting.  Internal control over financial reporting is defined in Rule 13a-15(f) or 15d-15(f) promulgated under the Exchange Act as a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the issuer’s principal executive and principal financial officers and effected by the issuer’s board of directors, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and includes those policies and procedures that:

 
·
Pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the issuer;

 
·
Provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and that receipts and expenditures of the Company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the issuer; and

 
 

 

 
·
Provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of the issuer’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements.  Projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.  All internal control systems, no matter how well designed, have inherent limitations.  Therefore, even those systems determined to be effective can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to financial statement preparation and presentation.  Because of the inherent limitations of internal control, there is a risk that material misstatements may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis by internal control over financial reporting.  However, these inherent limitations are known features of the financial reporting process.  Therefore, it is possible to design into the process safeguards to reduce, though not eliminate, this risk.

As of the end of our most recent fiscal year, management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the criteria for effective internal control over financial reporting established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission ("COSO") and SEC guidance on conducting such assessments.  Based on that evaluation, they concluded that, as of December 31, 2008, such internal control over financial reporting was not effective.  This was due to deficiencies that existed in the design or operation of our internal control over financial reporting that adversely affected our internal controls and that may be considered to be material weaknesses.

The matters involving internal control over financial reporting that our management considered to be material weaknesses under the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board were: (1) lack of a functioning audit committee due to a lack of a majority of independent members and a lack of a majority of outside directors on our board of directors, resulting in ineffective oversight in the establishment and monitoring of required internal controls and procedures; (2) inadequate segregation of duties consistent with control objectives of having segregation of the initiation of transactions, the recording of transactions and the custody of assets; and (3) ineffective controls over period end financial disclosure and reporting processes.  The aforementioned material weaknesses were identified by our Chief Financial Officer in connection with the review of our financial statements as of December 31, 2008.

Management believes that the material weaknesses set forth in items (2) and (3) above did not have an effect on our financial results as these weaknesses were mitigated by the hiring of a CFO who is responsible for reviewing all transactions and all financial disclosures as well as the financial audit as evidenced by the number of audit adjustments.  However, management believes that the lack of a functioning audit committee and the lack of a majority of outside directors on our board of directors results in ineffective oversight in the establishment and monitoring of required internal controls and procedures, which could result in a material misstatement in our financial statements in future periods.

 
 

 

This annual report does not include an attestation report of the Company's registered public accounting firm regarding internal control over financial reporting.  Management's report was not subject to attestation by the Company's registered public accounting firm pursuant to temporary rules of the SEC that permit the Company to provide only the management's report in this annual report.

Management's Remediation Initiatives

In an effort to remediate the identified material weaknesses and other deficiencies and enhance our internal controls, we have initiated, or plan to initiate, the following series of measures:

We will increase our personnel resources and technical accounting expertise within the accounting function when funds are available to us. First, we will create a position to segregate duties consistent with control objectives of having separate individuals perform (i) the initiation of transactions, (ii) the recording of transactions and (iii) the custody of assets. Second, we will create a senior position to focus on financial reporting and standardizing and documenting our accounting procedures with the goal of increasing the effectiveness of the internal controls in preventing and detecting misstatements of accounting information. Third, we plan to appoint one or more outside directors to our board of directors who shall be appointed to an audit committee resulting in a fully functioning audit committee who will undertake the oversight in the establishment and monitoring of required internal controls and procedures such as reviewing and approving estimates and assumptions made by management when funds are available to us. We anticipate the costs of implementing these remediation initiatives will be approximately $200,000 to 250,000 a year in increased salaries and $50,000 to $100,000 a year in increased legal and accounting expenses.

Management believes that the appointment of one or more outside directors, who shall be appointed to a fully functioning audit committee, will remedy the lack of a functioning audit committee and a lack of a majority of outside directors on our Board.

We anticipate that these initiatives will be at least partially, if not fully, implemented by December 31, 2009.  Additionally, we plan to test our updated controls and remediate our deficiencies by December 31, 2009.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15 (f) under the Exchange Act) during the fourth quarter of 2008 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

 
 

 

PART IV

Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules

31.1
Certification Pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) (4)*
31.2
Certification Pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) (4)*
32
Certification Pursuant to Section 1350 of Title 18 of the United States Code*

*Filed herewith.

 
 

 

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

Date:  October 19, 2009
CYBERDEFENDER CORPORATION
     
 
By:
/s/ Gary Guseinov
   
Gary Guseinov
   
Chief Executive Officer
     
 
By:
/s/ Kevin Harris
   
Kevin Harris
   
Chief Financial Officer