CA sacks more staff in accounting probe
Computer Associates has 'terminated' the employment of nine staff following an internal investigation into the company's accounting practices.
Link: Ex-Computer Associates CFO admits fraud
The employees – five in finance and four from the firm’s legal department – have gone as the company nears completion of its internal audit, headed by former Securities and Exchange Commission chief accountant Walter Schuetze.
CA is also currently being investigated by the SEC and the district attorney’s office of East New York. Four former senior executives have already pleaded guilty to related charges.
The company said Schuetze’s investigation aims to find whether a restatement of its previous financial statements is required, and, if so, the extent of such restatement.
The audit committee has found that CA prematurely recognised revenue in its fiscal year for 2000 on the basis of software licence agreements that were signed in a later quarter.
‘As the audit committee wraps up its work and takes these remedial actions, the management team has continued to focus on the business at hand as we have in the past months,’ said CA chairman and chief executive Sanjay Kumar, in a statement.
Kumar added that the firm still expects to release fourth quarter and 2004 fiscal year-end results on 12 May as scheduled.