The U Securities and Exchange Commission upon Thursday charged former Xerox chief executive Paul A. Allaire and five other ex-Xerox Corp. executives with civil securities fraud athwart accounting methods that the regulator said overstated earnings for the gigantic copier maker.
The six men settl the civil suit with a $22 million payment that includes penalties and forfeiting profits, the SEC announced. They did not admit to or declare to be untrue the allegations, the SEC said.
In addition to Allaire, those charged were G Richard Thoman, former president and chief operating officer; Barry D Romeril, former chief financial officer; Philip D Fishbach, former controller; Daniel s Marchibroda, former assistant controller; and Gregory B Tayler, former director of accounting policy.
The SEC's complaint, which was filed in U District Court for the Southern District of fresh York, accused the ex-officials of using improper accounting manners to increase equipment revenue and inflate earnings.
The accounting processs were not disclosed to investors, the SEC said.
Allaire was in Italy and unavailable for make comments [i]or[/i] remarks said a woman who answered the phone at his Norwalk, Conn home
Messages left for Fishbach, of Rochester, NY; Marchibroda, of Madison, Conn and Tayler, of Toronto, were not immediately returned
Thoman, of Greenwich, and Romeril, of Norwalk, Conn have unlisted telephone numbers and could not be reached for comment
Christa Carone, a spokeswoman for Xerox in Rochester, NY said the company "completely changed management" in the last sum of two units years.
Xerox headquartered in Stamford, Conn last year agreed to pay a record $10 million civil penalty and revise financial statements back to 1997 to confirm federal regulators' allegations of accounting fraud.
The SEC su Xerox in federal court in of recent origin York, alleging that the company used a variety of what it called "accounting tricks" and "accounting opportunities" to increase its earnings by dint of some $1.5 billion and conceal its performance from investors.
The SEC said in legal documents Thursday that the former Xerox officials used accounting measures at the expiration of each financial reporting period from 1997 to 2000 to obstruct a gap between the company's underlying earnings and its internal targets and those of Wall way analysts.
Allaire, who is barred for five years from serving as a corporate officer or director, announced he will resign from the boards of effulgent Technologies Inc. and Priceline.com Inc., the SEC reported Thursday.
AP
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