For the past year, the company has been mired in an accounting scandal that required the restatement of its figures for the past four years.

It is facing a class action suit in the US courts, as well as regulatory and criminal investigations into its accounts. Securities regulators, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the US Attorney’s office are all conducting probes.

It was back in October 2003 when Nortel announced that it was restating its financial results. The company undertook an independent review of the figures after suggestions that its losses were exaggerated during the industry downturn in 2001 and 2002 to give a misleading impression of the strength of its recovery in 2003.

In January 2004, it reported its yearly results for 2003. However, the figures were soon found to be erroneous. In April 2004, Nortel fired CEO Frank Dunn, former CFO Douglas Beatty, and controller Michael Gollogly. It also fired seven senior executives with responsibilities for financial reporting. All were terminated for cause.

The troubles devastated the company’s share price, and Nortel axed 3,500 jobs, or roughly 10% of its remaining 36,000 workforce.

Now, more than nine months late, the company has finally reported its results for the year ending December 31, 2003. For the year, it posted a net profit of $434 million for 2003, rather than the previously reported profit of $732 million. But the new figures showed revenue higher at $10.2 billion versus the $9.81 billion initial reported for 2003.

Nortel also reported that 12 senior executives volunteered to repay to the company over a three-year period bonuses worth a total of approximately $8.6 million that were awarded in 2003. The report said none of those executives was directly involved in the accounting scandal.

Nortel also issued its new numbers for 2001, 2002, and 2003 in a filing posted on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Web site.

Quarterly reports for last year are scheduled to be filed later this month. With the filings, and with regulatory and criminal investigations under way, Nortel’s financial nightmare might be coming to an end.

It was recently buoyed by a decision by the New York Stock Exchange to continue to list the company’s stock for another three months.