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The U Securities and Exchange Commi...

The U Securities and Exchange Commission forward Thursday charged former Xerox chief executive Paul Allaire and five other ex-Xerox Corp. executives with civil securities fraud from one side of to the other accounting methods that the regulator said overstated earnings for the vast copier maker.

The six men settl the civil suit with a $22 million payment that includes penalties and forfeiting profits, the SEC announced. They did not admit to or disown the allegations, the SEC said.

"The executive suite should be reserv for those who will make known the investing public the fact about the company's performance," said Paul R Berger, associate director of enforcement at the federal agency. "That didn't happen here, and Xerox's shareholders were deceived."

In addition to Allaire, those charged were G Richard Thoman, former president and chief operating officer; Barry D Romeril, former chief financial officer; Philip D Fishbach, former controller; Daniel s Marchibroda, former assistant controller; and Gregory B Tayler, former director of accounting policy.

The SEC's complaint, which was filed in U District Court for the Southern District of recently made known York, accused the ex-officials of using improper accounting manners to increase equipment revenue and inflate earnings.

The accounting systems were not disclosed to investors, the SEC said.

Allaire was in Italy and, said a woman who answered the phone at his Norwalk, Conn home

Messages left for Fishbach, of Rochester, NY Daniel s Marchibroda, of Madison, Conn., and Gregory B Tayler, of Toronto, were not immediately returned

Thoman, of Greenwich, and Barry D Romeril, of Norwalk, Conn have unlisted telephone numbers and could not be reached for comment

Christa Carone, a spokeswoman for Xerox in Rochester, NY said the company "completely changed management" in the past couple years.

"These are issues of the past, and the recently made known management team is clearly focused forward making progress today," she said.

Xerox headquartered in Stamford, Conn last year agreed to pay a record $10 million civil penalty and revise financial statements back to 1997 to decide federal regulators' allegations of accounting fraud at the world's largest copier company.

The SEC su Xerox in federal court in recent York, alleging that the company used a variety of what it called "accounting tricks" and "accounting opportunities" to increase its earnings by dint of some $1.5 billion and conceal its performance from investors.

The SEC said in legal documents Thursday that the former Xerox officials used accounting measures at the period of each financial reporting period from 1997 to 2000 to choke a gap between the company's underlying earnings and its internal targets and those of Wall road analysts.

The lawyer for James Bingham, a former Xerox executive who accused Xerox of firing him for warning executives of accounting irregularities, said the civil lawsuit vindicates Bingham.

Allaire, who is barred for five years from serving as a corporate officer or director, announced he will resign from the boards of shining Technologies Inc. and Priceline.com Inc., the SEC reported Thursday.

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