From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sanjay Kumar (born Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1962) was the Chairman & CEO of Computer Associates International (now CA, Inc.), until April 2004. He emigrated with his family to the US in 1976 to escape civil unrest in his native Sri Lanka. The family originally settled in South Carolina. He attended Furman University from 1980 to 1983, but left without completing a degree.

Kumar became an employee of Computer Associates in 1987, when it acquired UCCEL Corp. in an $800 million buy-out. Kumar was, at the time, UCCEL's director of software development and had been employed by UCCEL only for a few months.

Kumar was promoted to Vice President of Planning the following year, relocating to Computer Associates' Long Island headquarters. Over the years he held various leadership roles at the firm. In 1989, he became Senior Vice President of Planning and in 1993 moved up to Executive Vice President of Operations. Kumar was named President and Chief Operating Officer in 1994 at age 31.

In 2000, Kumar replaced his mentor Charles Wang as Chief Executive Officer of the firm and in 2002 became Chairman of Computer Associates' board of directors. Kumar is widely credited for moving CA to be more customer-focused, and for implementing the software industry's first large scale ratable revenue recognition business model.

Kumar resigned as chairman and chief executive in April 2004, following an investigation into securities fraud and obstruction of justice at Computer Associates. He remained with the firm in the new position of Chief Software Architect for about six weeks before leaving the firm altogether on June 4, 2004. A federal grand jury in Brooklyn indicted him on fraud charges on September 22, 2004 [1]. Kumar pled guilty to obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges on April 24, 2006 [2]. On November 2, 2006, it was reported that he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $8 million for his role in a massive accounting fraud at Computer Associates.

At the hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, Judge Leo Glasser sentenced Kumar, 44 years old, to 144 months in prison, to be followed by three years supervised release. The judge deferred payment of the fine until after restitution is determined at a hearing scheduled for February 2, 2007. Kumar was scheduled to report to prison on February 27, 2007 but that was delayed by two months due to delays in the restitution hearing.[3]

"I stand before your honor today to take full responsibility for my actions," Mr. Kumar said prior to sentencing. "I know that I was wrong and there’s no excuse for my conduct."

At one time, Kumar was a part owner, with Wang, in the New York Islanders hockey team and New York Dragons arena football team but according to local news reports Wang purchased Kumar's share in 2006.

• Sanjay Kumar at the Notable Names Database