No sniping commentary necessary from me. The article speaks for itself...
online.wsj.com
Former CA CEO Kumar Is Accused of Deleting Data
By CHRIS REITER
February 15, 2006 3:33 p.m.
Sanjay Kumar, the former chief executive of CA Inc., has been accused of destroying potential evidence by erasing his laptop's hard drive, as the government gears up for his trial on allegations of accounting fraud in April.
In a letter filed with the U.S. District Court in Eastern New York, the U.S. Attorney's office said it will submit evidence showing that Mr. Kumar reformatted his laptop to run the Linux operating system, which would effectively wipe out the computer's memory. It alleges that the reformatting occurred after the start of government investigations and after the company issued a directive to employees to preserve relevant evidence.
The government also plans to show that a laptop, bearing a "partial latent" fingerprint from Mr. Kumar, had certain data deleted in the midst of government investigations, according to the letter filed Feb. 2.
Mr. Kumar, along with former head of sales Stephen Richards, have been charged with fraud and obstruction of justice in an accounting scandal at CA, formerly known as Computer Associates International Inc. The two were indicted in September 2004.
Attorneys for the defendants weren't immediately available for comment.
CA entered an 18-month deferred prosecution agreement for prematurely recognizing more than $2.2 billion in revenue between the fourth quarter of 1998 and the second quarter of 2001 by instituting the so-called "35-day month" in order to meet, or beat, quarterly earnings targets.
The government also plans to present evidence that Mr. Richards created a directory on his hard drive called "incinerate" shortly after receiving a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CA, which has overhauled management since Mr. Kumar was pushed out, has been cooperating with government investigators. The company has been trying to emerge from the scandal, in part by changing its name.
Write to Chris Reiter at chris.reiter@dowjones.com
EK!!! |
