CA is getting closer to ending the accounting fraud scandal that has plagued the company for the past four years.

Because CA complied with the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement formed in September 2004, U.S. Judge I. Leo Glasser dismissed all pending charges against the company, CA said on Monday.

CA had been charged with securities fraud and obstruction of justice for falsely recording software licensing revenues prematurely in order to boost financial results and then covering it up. But the company made a deal under which it agreed to cooperate with government investigations into the fraud and institute mechanisms to prevent such fraud in the future. If CA followed the terms of the deal, the judge agreed to dismiss the charges. Earlier this month an independent examiner reported that CA had indeed complied with the deferred prosecution agreement.

In criminal cases, former CA executives have been sentenced to jail and fined for their roles in the accounting fraud, which went on from the mid-1980s through 2001. Some of the company's executives were also found to have obstructed the government’s investigation of the practice.

Sanjay Kumar, a former CEO of CA, was recently ordered to pay $1 billion to victims of the fraud and he was sentenced to 12 years in jail. The former head of worldwide sales at the company, Stephen Richards, was recently sentenced to seven years in jail for his part in the financial fraud. Other executives have also been found culpable and CA has agreed to pay $225 million to a restitution fund for victims of the fraud.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.