First PacTrust to Delay Annual Report After Auditor, Exec Changes

First PacTrust Bancorp (BANC) in Irvine, Calif., is delaying the filing of its annual report after switching auditors and seeing several top executives leave in recent months.

The $1.7 billion-asset company said Tuesday that its 10-K has been delayed and would be filed as soon as is practical. The delay “could not be avoided without unreasonable effort or expense” and will not have a material effect on financial results, First PacTrust said.

It replaced auditor Crowe, Horwath with KPMG in December. Last month, Chief Credit Officer Matthew Bonaccorso resigned and was succeeded by acting Chief Credit Officer Ray Vadalma. In November, Chief Financial Officer Marangal Domingo stepped down, but the company brought him back on a consulting basis in December. And its plan to have co-chief executives collapsed in September when Gregory Mitchell, who had been CEO since 2010, resigned, leaving Steven Sugarman the sole CEO.

Sugarman led the recapitalization of First PacTrust in 2010.