Veritas said CFO Kenneth Lonchar was dismissed for falsely claiming to have earned a master's degree from Stanford Business School, which has close ties to Silicon Valley's high-tech community and is just down the road from the company's headquarters.

A researcher in Arizona State University's records department told Reuters she could find no information on Lonchar, whose company biography said he earned his bachelor's in accounting there.

Veritas declined to comment further on Lonchar's background.

The revelations stunned the scandal-weary Wall Street and corporate communities. Shares in Veritas closed down 19 percent on the day.

"It's just shocking. It's almost unbelievable that people in the inner circle didn't know about this," John McPeake, a software analyst at Prudential Securities Inc., said.

Lonchar -- a charismatic and down-to-earth executive known for answering his own phone -- last year won CFO Magazine's CFO Excellence Award for Managing External Stakeholders.

"Our experience with him as a board member has been good," said Joe Horine, a spokesman at Florida-based Citrix Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:CTXS - News)

Horine said Lonchar seemed to have operated with the "highest standard of integrity" and remains a board member in good standing.

Lonchar -- whose membership in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants checked out -- could not be reached for comment.

E-MAIL SPARKS STORM

Veritas officials said a member of the company's board of directors received the allegation via an unsolicited, outside e-mail. Veritas investigated and Lonchar was asked to resign.

"This unfortunate situation has no bearing on our financial situation nor on our internal controls," Veritas Chief Executive Gary Bloom said in a hastily arranged conference call.

Veritas said any deceit appeared to be isolated to Lonchar's educational credentials. The company said it stood by its forecasts for third-quarter revenue of between $350 million and $370 million and earnings, excluding a range of special accounting items, of 11 cents to 13 cents a share.

Many analysts and investors, however, weren't willing to take the company's word for it.

"Our first concern is that the CFO's falsification of his educational credentials could suggest the financials are suspect," Merrill Lynch analyst Scott Phillips said in a client note in which he cut Veritas' stock rating to "neutral" from "buy."

Veritas shares, which have weathered the technology bust better than most, fell to 1998 levels and were the second-most actively traded on the Nasdaq.

The stock, which traded as high as $174 in March 2000, the peak of the technology bubble, finished down $2.77, or 19.1 percent, to $11.73 on Nasdaq.

Credit Suisse First Boston analyst George Gilbert noted that there appeared to have been long-standing tension between Lonchar, who typically painted the company's outlook in a positive light, and the company's "more tempered" CEO, Bloom.

"There were widely held concerns about the working relationship between Lonchar and Bloom, with heightened recent rumors of Lonchar's departure," said Gilbert, who called the CFO's exit a "fundamental positive" for the company.

Lonchar joined Veritas through a merger with OpenVision in 1997 at a time when both companies were small and internal corporate controls such as background checks on executives were handled more informally, Bloom said.

Veritas said Lonchar will be replaced on an acting basis by Chief Administrative Officer Jay Jones. The Mountain View, California, company said it would name a new CFO by year-end.

When asked by an analyst during the conference call whether the company would be further scrutinizing its results, Bloom said: "Pretty much, no."

Veritas had recently gone through a thorough review as part of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requirement that top executives certify their results, Bloom said.

With Thursday's news, Lonchar joined the list of corporate personalities who have gone from fame to shame due after falsifying their resumes.

Former Sunbeam executive Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap failed to mention that he had been fired from previous jobs.

Ex-Salomon Smith Barney analyst Jack Grubman said he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he in fact studied at nearby Boston University.