The SEC said the cases involved a "cookbook of recipes" for fraudulent accounting, including reporting income from shipments that never were made, shipping products without customers' wanting them, creating phony invoices and inflating the value of inventories.
In Tarkenton's case, the Hall of Fame quarterback and 10 other former executives of his computer software and consulting firm, KnowledgeWare Inc., were accused of inflating by millions of dollars the company's earnings in reports for its fiscal year ended June 30, 1994.
The former Minnesota Vikings quarterback agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and $54,187 in restitution. He did not admit any wrongdoing.
Executives of San Juan Capistrano software firm Wiz Technology Inc. allegedly misled investors with false financial statements that inflated the company's stock price, then sold their shares for a profit, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
