Ex-Computer Associates Executives, SEC Settle

Two former executives of Computer Associates International, who have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, have agreed to pay a total $387,470 to settle related civil charges in a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal at the big software company, federal regulators said Tuesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit in April against the two, former senior vice president of finance and administration David Kaplan and former vice president of finance David Rivard. They pleaded guilty that month to criminal charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and obstruct justice, and have cooperated with law-enforcement authorities.

Computer Associates' former chairman and chief executive, Sanjay Kumar, has been charged with securities fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. The Islandia, N.Y.-based company, which is the world's fourth-largest software maker, restated its financial results from 2000 and 2001 in April to reflect $2.2 billion in revenue that was improperly booked.

The company agreed in September to pay $225 million to shareholders as part of an unusual settlement that allowed it to defer criminal prosecution and also settled the SEC's charges of securities fraud against it.

Kaplan and Rivard already had struck deals with the SEC in April when they agreed to return their allegedly ill-gotten gains, then unspecified, and to be permanently barred from serving as officers or directors of a public company.

Under the settlements announced Tuesday, in which the two former executives neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing, Rivard agreed to pay $83,700 in restitution and interest and a $75,000 civil fine. Kaplan is paying $128,770 in restitution and interest and a $100,000 civil fine.

The SEC said Tuesday that its investigation into Computer Associates continues. The agency has said that during the company's 2000 fiscal year, it "prematurely recognized" more than $1.4 billion in revenue from at least 116 contracts that had not yet been signed.

The company said it had billions of dollars in annual revenue in the late 1990s. Reported revenues plunged after Computer Associates changed its accounting practices in the face of increased outside scrutiny.