Sanjay Kumar resigned on Wednesday as chairman and chief executive of Computer Associates International Inc., as the software company's long-simmering accounting scandal finally reached the top, says a HeraldTribune.com report.

He will, however, take up a new position of chief software architect.

Reports said that Lewis Ranieri, one of the independent directors on the board of the company, was elected chairman.

After running the company for four years, Computer Associates said Kumar stepped down from his executive positions and the board of directors.

Computer Associates, a $3 billion maker of software for corporate computing systems, is being investigated by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission for misrepresenting the timing of contracts in order to meet Wall Street's quarterly expectations.

The biggest fear for the company's board of directors was that the entire company, not just some of its employees and executives, could be criminally indicted as US federal prosecutors are examining various issues to determine whether to charge the company.

A felony conviction for the corporation could have serious consequences -- such a conviction effectively killed the accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP, and could result in ineligibility to participate in government contracts, a major loss for any technology vendor. If CA is indicted, it could be banned from government work even before the case is tried, said The Wall Street Journal.