Texas billionaire Sam Wyly has filed a counter claim in a lawsuit against Computer Associates International, accusing the company of failing to disclose to shareholders that one of its board members was also a director of troubled software maker Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products.
Through his company, Ranger Governance, Wyly, who is seeking to oust the Computer Associates board and its top management, accused the world's fourth largest maker of software, its Chairman Charles Wang and Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Kumar, of mischaracterizing its relationship with customers.
He also accuses the management of the company of omitting from its recently released proxy statement to investors board member Roel Pieper's role as a director of Lernout & Hauspie.
The beleaguered Belgian-based speech-technology software maker is struggling from an accounting-based fraud scandal that landed its co-founders and managing director in jail, forced the company to seek bankruptcy protection, and wiped out US$10 billion in shareholder value.
