In Brief: Cendant Faults CUC's Accounting Practices

Cendant Corp. said Monday that accounting irrregularities at the former CUC International Inc. were greater than reported in April.

For at least the last three years, CUC results "reflected a continuing program of false entries which misrepresented the financial performance and condition of that company," Cendant said. The company also called the accounting practices "widespread and systemic."

Cendant was formed by the merger of HFS Inc. and CUC International. It is in the mortgage business and owns a huge network of real estate brokers and other affiliates including Century 21, Coldwell Banker, and ERA.

The accounting problems include irregular charges against merger reserves, false coding of services sold, delayed recognition of membership cancellations and "chargebacks"-rejections by a credit card-issuing bank of a charge to a member's credit card account-and recording of fictitious revenues, the company said.

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