Electronic Clearinghouse Chairman Steps Down

Thomas E. Skala resigned as chairman of Electronic Clearinghouse, the Agoura Hills company said Monday.

Dan Tatkon, a company director, said Skala was ousted. But Skala, 40, said he stepped aside voluntarily to satisfy outsiders who set his resignation as a condition for their investment.

Tatkon said a new chairman and a president will probably be selected by the end of the week. Warren Stewart, an outside consultant, is acting president until then. Skala, who founded the company in 1977, will remain a director.

Electronic Clearinghouse, which went public in January, sells equipment used in stores to validate credit cards. It also is in the check-guarantee business.

The company also announced a financial restructuring and said it terminated some transactions involving Skala.

Tatkon said the company agreed to sell some convertible debt securities to private investors for $500,000. Skala said the terminated transactions involved an equipment-leasing company and a check-guarantee company in which he owned interests. No further details were disclosed.

Skala said he filed for protection from creditors in bankruptcy court in 1980 and that he was convicted of mail fraud in 1975 and fined $5,000.

The company, in a preliminary projection, said sales for the nine months ended June 30 were $9.3 million versus $3.4 million a year earlier. Earnings were not disclosed, but Tatkon said the business is profitable.