"Eight former executives of AOL Time Warner Inc. fraudulently inflated the company's online advertising revenues by more than $1 billion between 2000 and 2002."

Get the fuck out. Are you surprised? How long have magazine publishers been pumping up their numbers, pulling the same schtick?

Anyway, four of the executives have agreed to settle the civil charges brought brought by the SEC by paying out almost $8 million in fines. They are David Colburn, Eric Keller, Jay Rappaport and James MacGuidwin.

Pending charges remaining on the others: John Michael Kelly, former AOL Time Warner chief financial officer; Joseph Ripp, ex-chief financial officer of the AOL division; Steven Rindner, a former senior executive in the business affairs unit, and Mark Wovsaniker, former head of accounting policy.

New York-based Time Warner was just shocked, shocked by the scandal, which includes subscriber counts. Time Warner agreed in late 2004 and early 2005 to pay $300 million in a settlement of civil fraud charges with the SEC and $210 million to resolve charges of criminal securities fraud in a separate investigation by the Justice Department.

[source]