Computer Associates (CA) former CEO and head of sales both added their guilty pleas to those of five other former company executives yesterday, admitting fraud, obstructing justice, and perjury.

Former CEO Sanjay Kumar and his head of worldwide sales Stephen Richards presided over a "systemic, company-wide practice of falsely and fraudulently recording and reporting...fiscal quarter revenue," the US Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Now under new management, CA said in an announcement: "We are a dramatically different organisation than we were two years ago, when both Mr Kumar and Mr Richards left the company."

It had undergone a "transformation" and had put in place "infrastructure that promotes integrity, compliance and good governance", with which it had made "significant progress".

The guilty pair join other compadres, including a former chief financial officer and former general counsel, who have already admitted their part in the fraud.

The seven executives were charged with operating a "35 day" accounting month in order to cram their books with enough sales to meet sales forecasts. This was in 2000, a boom time for the computer industry.

Kumar and Richards also admitted lying to their lawyers about the fraud, and telling porkies to federal investigators when they came round asking awkward questions about proper accounting practices, probity, corporate governance, and such like.

Kumar is also charged with bribing someone with millions of dollars to prevent him reporting the fraud to the authorities.

Sentencing is scheduled for 12 September 2006. ®

Related stories

• Ex-CA boss Kumar checks in for 12 year sentence (15 August 2007)
• CA World 2007: CA shakes up European channel (23 April 2007)
• CA mulls suing co-founder Wang over accounting fraud (16 April 2007)
• Kumar to return $800m to CA shareholders (13 April 2007)
• Apple exonerates Apple (29 December 2006)
• Former CA chief Kumar gets 12 years in the pen (2 November 2006)
• CA profits crash (15 August 2006)
• Ex-CA exec pleads guilty in hush money handout scandal (22 June 2006)
• CA's 'material weakness' leads to more accounting woes (31 May 2006)
• CA World 2005 diary Leaving Las Vegas (25 November 2005)
• CA World Rebranded CA in strategy refocus (14 November 2005)
• CA paddles back into the black (26 October 2005)
• CA boss charges detailed (4 July 2005)
• CA to restate five years of figures (27 May 2005)