The U.S. Department of Justice charged two ex-American Online executives and four former executives of PurchasePro, a defunct, Las Vegas software company, with cooking the books to inflate revenues
between late 2000 and April 2001. In the indictment, announced on Monday by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, the defendants were charged with forging contracts,
back-dating documents, and making phony record entries. In December, AOL's parent company Time Warner resolved related charges with the Justice Department and the SEC by agreeing to pay $510 million
and to cooperate with the investigation.
--Wendy Davis
