CA's ex-CEO Kumar accused of deleting data

February 15, 2006
Marketwatch.com

Sanjay Kumar, ex-chief executive of the company formerly known as Computer Associates Inc., has been accused of destroying potential evidence by erasing his laptop's hard drive as the government gears up for an April 24 trial alleging accounting fraud.

In papers filed Feb. 2 with the U.S. District Court in Eastern New York, the U.S. Attorney's office said it will submit new evidence showing that Kumar reformatted his laptop to run the Linux operating system, which would effectively wipe out the computer's memory. It is also alleged that the reformatting occurred after the start of the government's investigation and after the company issued a directive to employees to preserve relevant evidence.

Kumar, along with former head of sales, Stephen Richards, has been charged with fraud and obstruction of justice in an accounting scandal at CA Inc. (CA), which changed its name in the fall of 2005, partly in an effort to distance itself from the scandal. The two executives were indicted in September 2004.

The government also plans to present evidence that Richards created a directory on his hard drive called "incinerate" shortly after receiving a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the filing...

Labels: CA