Top court rebuffs ex-CA chief's appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal by former Long Island software executive Sanjay Kumar, who had asked the high court to reduce his 12-year prison sentence on a $2-billion fraud conviction.

There's nothing else for Kumar to do now but accept the sentence, his lawyer said Tuesday.

"This is the end of a road for a man whose sentence, in my view, is too long," Paul Shechtman, a Manhattan attorney, said.

Kumar, 49, formerly of Upper Brookville, was chief executive of Islandia-based Computer Associates International -- now known as CA Technologies -- when he defrauded investors by overstating earnings and backdating executives' stock options, prosecutors said.

He was accused of destroying evidence, paying off a witness and other crimes.

Kumar pleaded guilty to fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges in 2006, but said the trial judge failed to use the proper guidelines in setting his sentence. However in its decision announced Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to consider the case, allowing the lower court's decision to stand.

Kumar, housed at a federal medium-security men's prison in Fairton, N.J., has a date of release set for Jan. 25, 2018.

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The basis of Kumar's appeal was that the lower court had not properly credited him for accepting responsibility and pleading guilty.

But in August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan ruled that Kumar's guilty plea was eclipsed by his earlier conduct as he "tampered with physical evidence, bribed witnesses, and lied repeatedly during the course of a federal investigation."

Kumar was also ordered to pay $798 million in restitution.