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February 23, 2007

Veritas Pays $30 Million To Settle AOL Fraud Case

The SEC will receive $30 million from Veritas to settle the AOL advertising fraud case.

AOL and Veritas were found by the SEC to have inflated advertising sales numbers by as much as $20 million.

AOL paid the SEC $200 million in 2005 to settle their part of the case.

AOL paid the larger amount due to greater misconduct and larger accounting exaggerations, the SEC stated.

Veritas “artificially inflated reported revenues in connection with a $20 million round-trip transaction with America Online,” and “to produce what it believed were exceptional or ‘museum quality' financial results, Veritas systematically manipulated its financial results through 2002 by periodically recording and maintaining excess accrued liabilities or cushions in its accrual accounts,” Adotas reported.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 23, 2007 2:58 PM

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