Kumar and Stephen Richards, the former worldwide sales director who also pleaded guilty to the same charges, were indicted in 2004 for inflating quarterly financial results by backdating contracts, in order to meet Wall Street expectations.
Kumar and Richards each faced eight charges in the indictment, and both initially pleaded not guilty in September 2004. Under one count, Kumar paid a client $3.7m to keep his lips sealed during a investigation of the company, in which time Kumar was well aware of the probe.
According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company declared more than $1.4bn in revenue from contracts that hadn’t yet been signed during its 2000 fiscal year. Overall, the company, which has since changed its name from Computer Associates International to CA, improperly accounted for $2.2bn in revenue in its 2000 and 2001 results.
CA restated its results from fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2004 after Kumar left the company in June 2004.
Trial for Kumar and Richards had been scheduled to start on May 8. Both are currently free on bond until the scheduled sentencing date of Sept 12. Both face as many as 20 years in prison for each of their offenses, but guidelines allow for shorter terms.
