Auditors quit at Penn Traffic

Deloitte & Touche has resigned as Penn Traffic's auditors over the company's refusal to release financial reports.

We've reported previously (here and here) on the company's problems, which stem apparently from misbooking trade promotion allowances: ("The Audit Committee found that the Company had engaged in certain improper practices principally relating to the premature recognition of promotional allowances ...").

The company, which operates 112 stores in the northeast US, is being investigated by both the SEC and the Justice Department, and fired a couple top executives earlier this year as a result of an internal investigation. But they have not released financials since emerging from Chapter 11 in April 2005.

You gotta wonder what's in those reports.