UPDATE 1-SEC accuses ex-Beazer official of accounting fraud
NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stock regulators on Wednesday accused a former chief accounting officer at Beazer Homes USA Inc (BZH.N) of running a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the builder's results.
Michael Rand, of Sandy Springs, Georgia, was accused in a civil lawsuit of violating federal securities law and misleading the builder's outside auditors to conceal his wrongdoing.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission contends in the lawsuit that Rand fraudulently decreased the Atlanta-based builder's reported net income by recording improper accounting reserves between 2000 and 2005.
The SEC said he began reversing these improper reserves in the first quarter of Beazer's 2006 fiscal year to offset the company's declining financial performance.
Rand's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
The SEC said its investigation is continuing. The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. (Reporting by Martha Graybow, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
