Veritas is Latin for truth, of course. The truth of what happened at Veritas Software in 2000 through 2002 is still the subject of fierce dispute between regulators and three former executives of the company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday filed a lawsuit against five former executives of the company in federal district court in San Jose, California.

The five artificially inflated and manipulated results and misled the company's auditors, the lawsuit contends. Two former executives, Michael M. Cully, the former controller, and Douglas S. Newton, settled the allegations without admitting wrongdoing. Earlier this year, Veritas, which restated its results in 2003 and 2004, paid $30 million to settle S.E.C. allegations. The company is now part of Symantec.

But the case against three former executive--Mark Leslie, the former chief executive, Kenneth E. Lonchar, the former chief financial officer, and Paul Sallaberry, the former head of sales--goes on. And the three appear girded for a fight.

Lonchar's lawyer, Susan Resley said that the S.E.C. allegations "are without foundation and amount to speculation piled on hearsay piled on innuendo and 20/20 hindsight,'' according to Dow Jones.

Leslie's lawyer, Douglas R. Young of Farella Braun and Martel in San Francisco said in a statement: "The part of this complaint that concerns Mr. Leslie involves two transactions with a single customer and the resulting financial statements from more than six years ago, reviewed and approved numerous times by internal and external accounting professionals, and disclosed by Mr. Leslie throughout the company. By ignoring these and other facts, an overzealous S.E.C. Enforcement Division casts an overly broad net only to ensnare an entirely innocent individual. ''

Their stance comes at a time when some have suggested that federal authorities have been too aggressive in finding fault lines in the gray borders of accounting.

The commission's lawsuit highlights a deal made with America Online in 2000. AOL wanted to buy all of Veritas software products, with some training and service. The proposed $30 million deal became a $50 million deal after AOL proposed that it would pay $20 million more if in exchange Veritas bought $20 million on online advertising.

The lawsuit fairly exudes sarcasm in describing what it contends was an improper round-trip transaction:

"Although Veritas did not need or want millions of dollars of online advertising from AOL, Leslie agreed to the proposal. At the time, Leslie had never purchased online advertising and had no idea if Veritas had a campaign in place to use online advertising."

Veritas then booked the entire $50 million as revenue.

The truth of how to recognize that transaction, as well as other accounting practices, may ultimately be decided by a court.

One of the three former executives had his credibility challenged before. The former chief financial officer, Lonchar, was ousted by Veritas in 2002, before the company discovered its accounting problems, because he had falsely claimed to having an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Veritas is a popular word in many universities' mottos, but not at Stanford. Its unofficial motto is one for defendants everywhere: it's the German for "the wind of freedom blows."

Jeffrey Cane