Computer Associates nemesis Sam Wily, who tried and failed to get CA's management ousted a couple of years ago, has made good on his threat to sue the company's two founders and 10 of its compromised former senior managers seeking the return of all the money they pocketed at CA since 1998.

Wily says the sum, somewhere in excess of a billion dollars in salaries and performance-based compensation, was paid based on "purposely false and misleading" financial statements and should be returned to CA.

The suit, filed in the same district court in New York where several of the men have already pleaded guilty to securities fraud and obstruction of justice, names CA co-founders Charles Wang and Russell Artzt, bounced CEO Sanjay Kumar, dismissed CFO Ira Zar, ex-senior VP, finance Lloyd Silverstein, ex-VP, finance David Rivard, ex-senior VP, financial reporting David Kaplan, ex-executive VP, sales support Gary Quinn, ex-executive VP of sales Stephen Richards, ex-corporate secretary Michael McElroy, ex-senior VP, business development Charles McWade and Zar's predecessor as CFO Peter Schwartz.

Wily, who sold his company to CA in 2001 for stock that has lost its value because of the scandals surrounding CA's books, said he despairs of the board taking any action because the board is implicated in the "magnificent waste of CA's assets."

He said he also "seeks to send a message to executives the world over: there is a real and substantial downside to stealing from the corporate treasury."

CA's audit committee has acknowledged that during the '90s at least $2.2 billion in revenues were prematurely recorded and sales and earnings were apparently reported twice.

Wily wants the company reimbursed for the $30 million it had to spend investigating its own financials because of the vast internal conspiracy plus the loss of business opportunities, the cut in its debt rating that raised its interest rate, the harm to its reputation, the restrictions placed on its ability to borrow money and the decline in its stock.

Meanwhile, two former executives of Accpac International, the subsidiary that CA sold to the Sage Group for $110 million earlier this year, are suing CA for roughly $2.8 million in unpaid fees they say CA owes them for bringing the sale off.

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