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MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: He used to be the Chief Executive of Computer Associates International, one of the world’s biggest software companies, but yesterday 44-year old Sanjay Kumar was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

He was also fined $8 million in an accounting fraud scandal estimated to have cost investors $400 million.

Securities attorney Lance Kimmel:

LANCE KIMMEL: Cooking the books, manipulating revenue to meet Street expectations, to keep the stock price up, is not the reason that management is in place. These people are supposed to be looking out for the common good. And it’s a misguided notion and it’s proved to be an ineffective defense across the board from one CEO to another who has been found guilty to say that he was doing all of these things because he actually thought this was in the best interests of the company.

According to the indictment Kumar orchestrated a plot to report more than $2 billion in false revenue between 1999 and 2000.

Kumar said he knew he was wrong and that there was no excuse for his conduct.